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Article: Atomic and Wi-Fi time.(Tech Forum)
- Article from:
- Strategic Finance
- Article date:
- September 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Institute of Management Accountants. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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SOME PHILOSOPHERS DEFINE TIME as a measure of motion, and, in the past, the idea has inspired timepieces that move water or sand from one receptacle to another or track the course of a shadow on a circle.
Now, when we finally have the whole thing refined down to a circular set of flywheels and gears beneath a couple of hands that make their own slow, daily journey around a disk, the technologists step in and tell us to forget it. They have found a smaller pattern of motion for us to pay attention to--a much smaller pattern.
The atomic clock is now the most accurate timepiece on earth--maintained at an accuracy of [10.sup.-9] seconds per day. There is ...