[HN Gopher] Ultra-Accurate Clocks Lead Search for New Laws of Ph...
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       Ultra-Accurate Clocks Lead Search for New Laws of Physics (2018)
        
       Author : pilingual
       Score  : 38 points
       Date   : 2021-03-28 16:02 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.quantamagazine.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.quantamagazine.org)
        
       | macintux wrote:
       | Recent discussion of a comparison between various atomic clocks:
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26582161
        
       | mdip wrote:
       | These sorts of articles can send me down the rabbit hole so
       | quickly.
       | 
       | As time rolls on, I realize that improvements to "measuring
       | things" tends to radically change whatever industry lives around
       | the target being measured and improvements in measuring anything
       | "fundamental" like time/distance can be revolutionary in places
       | and result in technologies that the consumer has _no idea_ have
       | any relation to even the _measurement_ (ala GPS /time).
       | 
       | But even at higher levels, improve the ability to read/interpret
       | information about a process and that process can be automated, or
       | a previously automated process can be made more reliable[1] or
       | possible[2]. If we couldn't measure time as precisely[3] as we
       | do, today, GPS would be impossible. Improvements to the _speed_
       | at which we can measure something -- precisely or not[4] when
       | coupled with other accurate measurements with different timings
       | all relying on the speed at which the (magic-foo) in RAM can be
       | accurately measured -- improve the accuracy and usefulness of the
       | measurement.
       | 
       | [0] Pretty obvious to this crowd...
       | 
       | [1] My FDM 3D printer can correctly create some pretty fantastic
       | output, but if half-way through there's a failure, it will
       | continue to print as though everything is A-OK, creating abstract
       | spaghetti-art. It's "measuring" several things throughout the
       | process (various position sensors), but being able to measure any
       | part of the adhesion process better could allow the printer to
       | adapt speed/temperature/conditions to produce a perfect
       | print/react to a problem.
       | 
       | [2] "Situational Awareness" applications, ones where multiple
       | measurements of multiple kinds are correlated to produce an
       | actionable intelligence about a situation -- something simple as
       | "the bone to be drilled has not moved, the bit is in the correct
       | position and _the expected characteristics at the drill site
       | match everything else_ ", being taken constantly throughout a
       | robotic surgery process, altering the execution plan as
       | measurements guide to a more "correct" outcome in real-time
       | (reacting to unexpected circumstances while improvements to
       | diagnostics measure many of them out of existence).
       | 
       | [3] All things being relative, anyway,
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accuracy_and_precision
       | 
       | [4] I'm probably a little out of date on this and at least a bit
       | inaccurate but my understanding is that phones can achieve a
       | geographical "fix" very quickly partly because they utilize
       | inaccurate measurements about your location. I know that an
       | _ancient_ (predating the existence of _Wi-Fi_ ancient) GPS device
       | I owned had a strange behavior where it would find me on a map in
       | less than a minute if I was at home, but would take ever longer
       | the further away from home I was if I accidentally forgot to shut
       | the app down correctly. I found out that pointing the  "Home
       | Address" setting at a nearby address corrected the problem.
        
       | thunkshift1 wrote:
       | Physicist 1: Do you want to hear a crazy theory? Everything is
       | made up of strings!
       | 
       | Physicist 2: My crazy theory is that a fifth force exists!
       | 
       | Physicist 3: Two words : Dark. Matter.
       | 
       | Physicist 3: Does any of this mean anything at all if we cant
       | unify quantum theory and relativity
       | 
       | Physicist 4: You know what, theres a way we can actually check
       | how crazy those crazy theories really are. Unleash the clocks!!!
       | 
       | Absolutely bonkers! This was a really nice and fun read.
        
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       (page generated 2021-03-28 23:01 UTC)