Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Cesium beam atomic clocks are available on the surplus market, though not nearly as common or as cheap as Rubidium. The clock in the photo is model hp 5071A and I got it on eBay 20 years ago. The tube will last on the order of 7 to 20 years with continuous use, depending on which type of tube is installed.

This was one of the atomic clocks I used for the time dilation / relativity experiment linked at the bottom of the page.



I loved that story back then... with the advent of optical lattice clocks, and smaller sources, etc... have you done an update to the experiment?


Yes, the original Mt Rainier experiment in 2005 caught the attention of Stephen Hawking and I was asked to repeat the experiment for his PBS/BBC TV series in 2016. It was mid-winter up here in PNW so we used Mt Lemmon in Arizona instead:

http://www.leapsecond.com/great2016a/

And in 2018 I was asked to be part of a "time travel" episode on a History channel show. We used Palomar Mountain in California:

http://www.leapsecond.com/great2018a/

Each experiment was a little different; different combination of clocks, different audience, different mountain, different elevations, different latitude, etc.


Just been going through your blog, and I'm in love with your Synchronome clock, which begs the question (apologies if this is answered somewhere):

Of all the clocks you own, what's your favourite and why?




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: