The Ytterbium Clock, a stability clock that loses a single second every 16 BILLION years has been declared as the most accurate ever to be invented, scientists have claimed.
The clock, a supercooled optical lattice system, is nearly 1,000 times more precise than that of the caesium atomic clock, currently the world standard in precision timekeeping, according to recent research published in the Nature Phontonics journal.
The scientsists who are behind this spectacular new study believe that their invention could be able to assist in measuring the size and shape of the Earth more accurately. The reason behind this is that clocks are located farther from the centre of our earth run marginally faster than those that are cited closer, but the actual difference is one minute. A clock that is situated 1 kilometre above another will run just a few seconds faster in a total of one million years.
Furthermore, the clock could be used to analyse how different areas of the world are moving up and down in relation to each other, and the findings could assist scientists and other experts to study geological processes, for example the reasons that lead to earthquakes.
The team behind the clock are aiming to miniaturise the current version in the hope of offering further useful applications, such as assessing the movement of lava.
This clock may be slightly out of our reach but there are still a wonderful range of antique marine watches available with us here at Pieces of Time.
Image: Jeffrey Smith under creative commons.
