WEBVTT - Atomic Clocks, Ahoy! 0:00:00.760 --> 0:00:04.840 Hey, everybody, we are coming to a town ostensibly near you, 0:00:04.880 --> 0:00:06.360 so putatively see us. 0:00:06.559 --> 0:00:10.520 That's right, May twenty ninth will be in Boston, really Medford, Massachusetts. 0:00:10.680 --> 0:00:13.319 The next night we're gonna go down to Washington, DC, 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:16.040 and then scooch back up to New York City at 0:00:16.040 --> 0:00:17.760 Town Hall on May thirty first. 0:00:18.200 --> 0:00:19.760 Yeah, and if you're one of those people who likes 0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:21.720 to plan way far in advance, then you can go 0:00:21.720 --> 0:00:24.160 ahead and get tickets for our shows in August. We're 0:00:24.200 --> 0:00:25.560 gonna start out where Chuck. 0:00:25.720 --> 0:00:28.720 We're gonna be in Chicago August seventh, Minneapolis August eighth, 0:00:29.040 --> 0:00:31.880 then Indianapolis for the very first time on August ninth, 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:34.400 and then we're gonna wrap it up in Durham, North Carolina, 0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:35.880 and right here in Atlanta. 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:37.640 On September fifth and September seventh. 0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:39.880 Yep. So you can get all the info you need 0:00:39.920 --> 0:00:42.159 and all the ticket links you need by going to 0:00:42.320 --> 0:00:44.920 stuff youshould know dot com and hitting that tour button, 0:00:45.360 --> 0:00:49.400 or you can also go to linktree slash SYSK Live. 0:00:49.920 --> 0:00:55.000 We'll see you guys this year. Welcome to Stuff you 0:00:55.000 --> 0:01:04.480 Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey, and welcome to 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:08.320 the podcast I'm Josh, there's Chuck, and Jerry's back. You 0:01:08.360 --> 0:01:10.120 don't know if you guys do or not, but Jerry's 0:01:10.120 --> 0:01:12.440 back because yeah, guest producer Ben was sitting in for 0:01:12.440 --> 0:01:15.959 a while and now Jerry's back, So everybody, Jerry's back 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:18.040 in case you hadn't heard him. 0:01:19.000 --> 0:01:21.320 Yeah, and we're back from a break. I had the 0:01:21.360 --> 0:01:26.200 spring break and they're by. You had spring break. You're welcome. 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:28.800 Yeah, thanks a lot, Thanks a lot. Where'd you go? 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:30.760 One of us gets a kid? We all get a kid. 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:31.280 Yep. 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:34.240 I went to Islo Palms again for the first time 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:35.920 in like four years. 0:01:36.040 --> 0:01:37.679 Very nice and it was great. 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:39.080 It's good to be back. I love that place. 0:01:39.480 --> 0:01:40.600 Did you get arrested again? 0:01:41.880 --> 0:01:46.280 Never got arrested there? Yeah, so I've never been arrested 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:47.200 anywhere I know. 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:48.680 I just wanted to throw everybody off. 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:49.240 Okay. 0:01:49.680 --> 0:01:52.720 The casual listeners are like, oh, Chuck got arrested before. 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:56.240 Okay, Yeah, to get up people, it doesn't exist. 0:01:57.560 --> 0:02:01.320 So I am really excited about this one, Chuck. It'd 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:04.520 been on my list for a while. I think I 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:07.639 came across a top ten list about like ten weird 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:10.720 things about atomic clocks that house stuff works, right, named 0:02:10.760 --> 0:02:14.440 Patrick Kiger wrote, Yeah, and I just had it on 0:02:14.480 --> 0:02:17.440 the list, but I hadn't really read it enough to 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:19.920 know what was going on. And it wasn't until I 0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:22.400 started digging into the research that I was like, these 0:02:22.400 --> 0:02:27.760 things are really interesting and the idea of our modern world. 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:31.400 You know, I soundly frozen caveman lawyer, but it's true. 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:36.760 Like everything from air traffic control to the Internet to 0:02:38.360 --> 0:02:42.800 basically everything except talking to one another on cans connected 0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:46.000 by string, you can thank atomic clocks for it just 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:49.600 simply wouldn't be possible without the atomic clock. 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:52.600 Yeah, And by saying that, you're what you're saying is, 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:55.520 and we'll dig into this more later, is that the 0:02:55.560 --> 0:03:01.320 world for everything to operate correctly tech forward world, it 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:04.480 has to be synchronized, right, and you can't synchronize something 0:03:04.560 --> 0:03:08.600 unless everybody agrees on what time it is. And that's 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:11.280 all an atomic clock is. It is very simply, and 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:15.240 we'll get into the how these things work, which sounds difficult, 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:16.480 but it's actually pretty simple. 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:16.840 Still. 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:21.720 It is the most accurate timepiece on planet Earth, and 0:03:21.760 --> 0:03:26.320 it is a self correcting clock that uses old tech 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:29.560 in a way in the form of quartz crystals. 0:03:29.840 --> 0:03:31.639 Oh you gave it away. 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:33.960 Well, I mean the first thing we're going to talk 0:03:34.000 --> 0:03:34.880 about probably. 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:41.000 Quartz crystals, which is old tech, and that it is 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:45.640 constantly being checked and corrected using new tech in the 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:48.440 form of the element cum one three. 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:50.320 Yeah, very well. 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:55.520 Put just a clock that sets itself, Yeah, very often 0:03:55.560 --> 0:03:56.200 and accurately. 0:03:56.720 --> 0:03:59.720 Yeah, because everybody who's ever had any experience with the 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:01.640 clock or a watch or something like that knows that 0:04:01.680 --> 0:04:06.119 it can gain or lose time, it can drift essentially. 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:08.520 You know what they say, though, what do they say 0:04:09.560 --> 0:04:12.560 even the worst clock is correct twice a day. 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:17.240 Yeah, they do say that. Yeah. So you mentioned quartz, right, 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:20.560 I did. That's a big deal. And what quartz is 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:23.000 if you've ever I had no idea what quartz was 0:04:23.360 --> 0:04:26.279 in a watch or a clock. I just had seen quartz, 0:04:26.320 --> 0:04:29.440 and you know, courts, it was like decades before I 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:31.520 realized that wasn't a brand. That they were saying, hey, 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:35.320 there's quarts inside, and what they're doing is boasting about 0:04:35.320 --> 0:04:38.960 how reliable their clock is. Because when we used to 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:43.320 we used to use things like mechanical stuff like springs 0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:45.960 that you would whine, that would power a bunch of gears, 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:50.720 and that would kind of gears. Yeah, the movement of 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:52.360 the gears would tick off seconds. 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:53.960 Right, how to gears work though. 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:58.800 Oh, we'll get into that in different episode. Right, Or 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:01.360 you had a pendulum tickt off time something like that. 0:05:01.400 --> 0:05:04.719 And then when we move to Quurtz, what quartz does 0:05:04.760 --> 0:05:07.320 is it takes off time as well, because we figured 0:05:07.360 --> 0:05:10.000 out at some I don't know who tried this first, 0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:13.919 but if you apply an electrical current to courts, you 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:19.400 mechanically like disfigure it. It called the Piezzo electric effect. 0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:23.599 And after you I guess as a result of that 0:05:23.600 --> 0:05:28.120 that contortion, it emits energy. It's like it's like it's 0:05:28.120 --> 0:05:30.839 a way of saying uncle. And when it emits energy, 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:34.640 it emits it at a really reliable frequency. And we 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:38.039 figured out how to use that reliable frequency to tell time. 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:44.360 And it's pretty pretty nuts how complicated clocks are, and 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:48.200 just how it kind of to me falls in line 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:52.000 with that Arthurs cy Clark quote that any sufficiently advanced 0:05:52.000 --> 0:05:56.520 technology will be indistinguishable from magic. I think applying electricity 0:05:56.560 --> 0:05:59.520 to quartz to keep time is right up there with 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:00.400 that kind the thing. 0:06:00.839 --> 0:06:06.000 Yeah, you mentioned it's a Pizzo electric material, and you know, 0:06:06.400 --> 0:06:09.520 we apply electricity to it just to affect it like 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:11.960 you could. You could bend chords or smack it or 0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:14.599 flick it with your finger or something, any kind of 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:16.680 mechanical stress on it, and it would do the same thing, 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:19.320 and it would produce an electrical charge that's going to 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:22.479 come out in pulses. And what those pulses do is they, 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:25.320 in the terms of a clock or a watch, is 0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:27.880 they mimic the swinging of that pendulum. But in this case, 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:31.800 like a pendulum ideally swings it once per second, in 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:34.719 this case it's thirty two thousand, seven hundred and sixty 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:38.800 eight pulses per second that that quartz crystal is emitting. 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:42.760 And you talked about whacking it or something. It looks 0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:45.480 like if you look at like the quartz they use, 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:47.080 it looks like a little tiny tuning fork. 0:06:48.120 --> 0:06:49.599 Oh Nito, I hadn't seen that. 0:06:49.839 --> 0:06:52.600 Yeah, it's just a little itty bitty tiny tuning fork. 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:54.880 And just like you would whack a tuning fork, and 0:06:54.920 --> 0:06:58.880 it would, you know, whatever a tuning fork does, because 0:07:00.279 --> 0:07:02.920 that's not what this is about. But that quurch does 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:05.719 the same thing. And we'll come back to that. Thirty 0:07:05.720 --> 0:07:08.560 two thousand and seven hundred and sixty eight pulses per 0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:12.120 second a few times, because the whole idea with the 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:15.200 development and as we get into history here of the 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:20.240 atomic clock is the more little pulses or ticks that 0:07:20.320 --> 0:07:24.160 you have, the more accurate within a second of time, 0:07:24.600 --> 0:07:26.720 the more accurate a clock is going to be. And 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:30.640 the development of the atomic clock has always been about 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:36.000 just making that number as large as possible. And I 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:38.360 guess we shouldn't reveal where we're at now, but it's 0:07:38.960 --> 0:07:40.000 in the matter of billions. 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:42.400 Well, so if you start from the say like an 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:45.600 old grandfather clock, as a pendulum swings from one side 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:47.920 to the other, that's a second, right, and we'll call 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:50.880 that a tick. Ticks off a second by swinging from 0:07:50.880 --> 0:07:54.040 one side to the other. And if that pendulum is 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:56.600 off just a little bit, say by a tenth of 0:07:56.640 --> 0:08:01.080 a second, right every ten seconds, it's going to lose 0:08:01.120 --> 0:08:04.640 a second, right because it has far fewer things to 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:07.600 tick off. It has one tick per second, and like 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:11.080 you were kind of hinting at, with crystals, you have 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:14.760 thirty two thousand plus ticks per second. So if it 0:08:14.840 --> 0:08:18.440 misses one tick out of like, what if it misses 0:08:18.440 --> 0:08:22.640 a tenth of the ticks, that's far far fewer in 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:25.120 total than it is to that one tick or that 0:08:25.160 --> 0:08:27.640 tenth of a tick that the pendulum is missing. And 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:31.360 so the more accurate the clock is, the more it's 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:36.679 what's called stable. And that's the goal of super precise clocks. Stability, 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:39.320 which is it's going to measure a second exactly the 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:42.880 same now as it will ten thousand years from now. 0:08:43.080 --> 0:08:46.480 That's stability, and that's the goal, and that's why we've 0:08:46.520 --> 0:08:50.640 started to turn to things like the atom, which if 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:53.400 we can figure out how to measure the atom accurately, 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:58.360 it's it's going to release x number of ticks every 0:08:58.400 --> 0:09:01.720 time anywhere in the universe if we can measure it 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:05.080 when it's excited. And that's kind of where we're at 0:09:05.120 --> 0:09:06.160 with atomic clocks. 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:09.800 Yeah, And if you're wondering, you know, in the terms 0:09:09.800 --> 0:09:14.120 of analog technology, with watches and clocks, they fall out 0:09:14.120 --> 0:09:16.800 of whack for a number of reasons because mainly because 0:09:16.800 --> 0:09:20.200 it's analog technology. Like a spring gets weaker over time, 0:09:21.320 --> 0:09:25.080 gears can come out of balance. Even when it comes 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:28.320 to crystals, like when they got the quartz crystal involved, 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:30.640 that was pretty good, like thirty two thousand and seven 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:33.600 sixty eight pulses per second, Like that's not too bad 0:09:33.640 --> 0:09:37.280 at all, but they can. Quarts can gunkump a little 0:09:37.320 --> 0:09:41.240 bit because it's a naturally occurring thing, and we'll talk 0:09:41.240 --> 0:09:44.239 about where you find that in a minute. And temperature, 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:49.160 atmospheric pressure, all of these things can throw even quarts 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:52.600 out of whack because it operates really well, you know, 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:56.400 basically at room temperature. But once you start applying you know, 0:09:57.440 --> 0:10:00.000 really cold like a watch in the really really cold weather, 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:02.400 an analog watch are really really hot weather, is it 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:05.720 going to be as accurate? So all of these things again, 0:10:06.240 --> 0:10:09.760 for many many, many hundreds of years, like all this 0:10:09.760 --> 0:10:14.280 stuff was fine because they just needed to tell time 0:10:15.040 --> 0:10:17.640 and get it pretty darn close, and that was good enough. 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:20.800 But when we started going into space, when we started 0:10:20.840 --> 0:10:24.840 launching satellites, certainly when the Internet came online, we started 0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:31.160 using GPS to do things like oh a get you places, 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:37.040 b bomb unfortunately bomb hopefully the right place from a 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:41.440 satellite communication in a war being off a little bit 0:10:41.559 --> 0:10:44.520 can cost human lives and lose a lot of money 0:10:44.520 --> 0:10:48.320 in other cases. So accuracy and that stability was a 0:10:48.360 --> 0:10:50.079 really really important goal to reach. 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:53.920 Yeah, I found a really good kind of comparison of 0:10:54.640 --> 0:10:57.720 you know why, that's so important that accuracy. So like 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:02.280 with quartz clock or a watch, it might lose fifteen 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:04.720 seconds over thirty days, which is not bad if you're 0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:09.160 running a train schedule, a court swatch will do just fine, right, 0:11:09.480 --> 0:11:12.800 But if you're trying to like say, land a lunar 0:11:12.880 --> 0:11:16.160 lander on the moon, if you're off by something like 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:19.960 a millisecond, you might overshoot the moon by like one 0:11:20.040 --> 0:11:24.000 hundred and two hundred miles three hundred or so kilometers 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:27.560 just by a millisecond. And a lander needs to be 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:31.280 accurate within like one hundred meters, so a millisecond off 0:11:31.679 --> 0:11:36.360 in your calculations can make you miss your your spot 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:40.240 by like three thousand times. That's not good at all. 0:11:40.480 --> 0:11:43.240 So that's why we need this kind of accurate stuff. 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:45.880 And there's all tons of applications, like we'll talk about 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:49.040 it later, but it just kind of goes to show 0:11:49.080 --> 0:11:52.480 like just how vital time is when you start using 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:56.240 it as a factor in really heavy formulas, which are 0:11:56.280 --> 0:11:59.559 the kind of formulas they used to land landers on 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:00.720 the moon. The heaviest. 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:04.000 Yeah, I got one more for you. A microsecond, even 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:08.560 just a microsecond. An error in the order of a 0:12:08.600 --> 0:12:11.520 microsecond can be a three hundred meter or about three 0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:15.240 hundred and twenty something yards difference, so that's still a lot. 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:19.360 Yeah. Sure, So again you need precision, and people have 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:22.440 been working for quite a while now to make clocks 0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:25.120 as precise as possible. Do you want to like take 0:12:25.160 --> 0:12:27.040 a break and then start talking about the history of 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:28.120 the atomic clock? 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:29.040 I think so. 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:32.000 I think that was I mean, maybe one of our 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:34.520 best setups ever between you and me. I don't want 0:12:34.520 --> 0:12:36.640 to get this out on the air, but okay, all right, 0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:37.760 this is just us talking. 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:38.920 We'll edit that out. 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:40.480 All right, we'll edit that out. But I think we're 0:12:40.480 --> 0:12:41.120 on the right track. 0:12:41.440 --> 0:13:06.920 Okay, well, we'll be right back everybody. So we have 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:11.640 a physics, very famous physics professor named Isidor Rabbi who 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:15.319 turned down the job of being Oppenheimer's like right hand 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:19.880 man at Los Alamos for the Manhattan Project and instead 0:13:19.880 --> 0:13:21.839 of one often to his own thing. And one of 0:13:21.920 --> 0:13:26.040 the things he developed is he discovered nuclear magnetic resonance, 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:29.000 and he figured out that's used in like the Wonder machine, 0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:31.640 the MRI, that's how it does its thing. He figured 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:34.679 out how to train that into or how to use 0:13:34.720 --> 0:13:38.240 it to great effect in what's called an atomic beam 0:13:38.360 --> 0:13:42.040 magnetic resonance, which essentially is a way to trap and 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:46.920 push around and excite atoms that you want to specifically 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:51.800 mess with. That's that's maybe the ten thousand feet version 0:13:51.880 --> 0:13:54.760 of what atomic beam magnetic resonance is. 0:13:55.280 --> 0:13:57.240 Yeah, and when we say we're going to say things 0:13:57.280 --> 0:13:59.920 like exciting atoms, that just means they're moving around. 0:14:00.360 --> 0:14:02.120 Yeah. So just I guess we could toss it out 0:14:02.120 --> 0:14:05.200 real quick now. And Adam has a ground state which 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:07.440 is its resting state and an excited state, and it 0:14:07.480 --> 0:14:10.439 can have multiple excited states, but it's either resting or 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:13.040 in some sort of excited state or other. Right, So 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:17.920 Rabbi was like, hey, this nuclear beam, I have a 0:14:17.960 --> 0:14:21.160 feeling you guys could could make an atomic clock out 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:23.840 of it. And everybody said, you guys, why don't you 0:14:24.000 --> 0:14:26.040 make it? And he said, you go make it. I 0:14:26.080 --> 0:14:29.080 he can, dare you was his famous quote. 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:31.040 You do it, No, you do it. 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:34.920 So somebody went off and did it. Yeah. I think 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:37.760 within four years the National Bureau of Standards which is 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:41.240 now the National Institute of Standards and Technology, they said 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:44.560 we've got this. We did it. Rabbi and He's like, 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:47.359 what are you talking about? He had terrible forgetfulness. 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:48.840 Yeah. 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:53.520 Yeah, they said, we built the first atomic clock, and 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:56.760 this is the earliest version. Used ammonia as the molecule 0:14:57.240 --> 0:15:00.600 and the source of the vibrations, so there were reason 0:15:00.680 --> 0:15:03.400 like copper piping to heat it up and shoot it out. 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:06.120 It was compared to what we have today, very rudimentary. 0:15:06.320 --> 0:15:11.400 But it worked pretty well as approofed of concept, as in, hey, 0:15:11.680 --> 0:15:12.960 we can do this. 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:14.800 But it was a little bit off. 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:17.640 I think it was about a second every four months, 0:15:18.360 --> 0:15:22.200 better than quartz, but still not as good as we 0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:25.920 needed to get to. But again, it proved conceptually that 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:29.200 an atomic clock was a thing that works better. 0:15:30.000 --> 0:15:32.840 Yes, for sure. But what's strange about ammonia is it 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:36.680 has a lower frequency, so there's less ticks per second 0:15:37.240 --> 0:15:40.320 than the quartz crystal. Does it as like twenty three 0:15:40.320 --> 0:15:44.840 thousand ticks per second or twenty and seventy hertz, right, 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:47.320 But like you said, they figured out that, yes, you 0:15:47.440 --> 0:15:49.760 can use an atom to keep track of time. But 0:15:49.800 --> 0:15:51.720 they're like, we got to find something better than that. 0:15:52.560 --> 0:15:56.880 Let's try seasium. And in nineteen one, yeah exactly, I 0:15:57.440 --> 0:16:00.160 could not find anywhere why they decided on seasium. I 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:03.080 know it's like neutral and maybe it's like it only 0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:06.400 maybe because it only does have two states, either ground 0:16:06.480 --> 0:16:10.480 or excited. I'm not exactly sure why, but it's a 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:14.720 really weird element, and it's difficult to work with, especially 0:16:14.720 --> 0:16:17.040 at like room temperature, because it can just suddenly catch 0:16:17.040 --> 0:16:18.120 fire if it wants to. 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:20.040 Well, I saw why they used it. 0:16:20.160 --> 0:16:23.040 You want to know, Well, all of this stuff has 0:16:23.040 --> 0:16:25.520 to deal with oscillation, which is basically, whether it's a 0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:30.480 pendulum swinging or that spring moving the gears, oscillation just 0:16:30.560 --> 0:16:33.920 means something that's moving back and forth at a regular rate. 0:16:34.400 --> 0:16:37.360 And it turns out that ccium one thirty three and 0:16:38.160 --> 0:16:41.680 when something is oscillating, and when you're speaking of like 0:16:41.720 --> 0:16:44.920 a clock or a timepiece, that's called a frequency reference, 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:48.880 like you're literally referencing a frequency that needs to be steady. 0:16:49.400 --> 0:16:53.240 And ccium one thirty three, they found, just was the 0:16:53.240 --> 0:16:57.800 most consistent frequency reference that they could find in nature. 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:02.920 And that was important because using something natural meant that 0:17:03.040 --> 0:17:04.760 humans all of a sudden were taken out of the 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:08.399 equation for the first time, which was a breakthrough because 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:11.360 it's like, this stuff is consistent till the cows come 0:17:11.400 --> 0:17:14.120 home and human hands aren't making it. 0:17:14.160 --> 0:17:16.879 So no, the only thing that humans have to do 0:17:16.960 --> 0:17:19.120 is to figure out how to excite it, and once 0:17:19.160 --> 0:17:20.920 you get it excited, it's going to do the same 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:23.639 thing every time, like I said, anywhere in the universe. Yeah, 0:17:23.640 --> 0:17:25.320 and then how to measure it. And those are like 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:28.280 the advances in atomic clocks. Figuring out how to more 0:17:28.400 --> 0:17:32.200 accurately measure caesium atoms once you get them excited. That's 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:34.520 kind of like the advance once they figured out how 0:17:34.560 --> 0:17:36.840 to excite seaesium and then how to measure it. They 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:38.840 had the first atomic clock all the way back in 0:17:38.920 --> 0:17:43.920 nineteen fifty two. The thing is is they started kind 0:17:43.960 --> 0:17:48.360 of advancing by leaps and bounds because with caesium, I think, 0:17:48.440 --> 0:17:51.000 do you want to go ahead and reveal like how 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:53.880 many ticks caesium gives off every second? 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:57.000 I guess we should, huh, I think you should take 0:17:57.000 --> 0:17:57.920 it man, all. 0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:00.840 Right, So it was thirty two thousand and chain for quartz, 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:06.879 or that pulse caesium one thirty three oscillates at nine billion, 0:18:07.080 --> 0:18:10.080 one hundred and ninety two million, six hundred and thirty 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:15.600 one thousand and seven hundred and seventy right, that's I 0:18:15.680 --> 0:18:17.440 think we would all agree that's quite a jump from 0:18:17.480 --> 0:18:19.160 thirty two thousand and change. 0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:21.440 It is. And like you said, oscillate is something that 0:18:21.640 --> 0:18:24.160 is just moving back and forth. It can also oscillate 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:26.240 up and down. And if something oscillates up and down, 0:18:26.280 --> 0:18:28.399 what you're talking about is a wave. And if you 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:30.840 put a bunch of waves together, you have a frequency, 0:18:30.960 --> 0:18:33.159 right if you if you have if you have a 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:36.760 point in space that you are detecting a wave passing, 0:18:37.240 --> 0:18:40.800 and you count how many pass in one second, you're 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:43.880 tracking the frequency of that wavelength, right, which I think 0:18:43.960 --> 0:18:46.320 in that sense as a hurts. Whatever happens in a 0:18:46.359 --> 0:18:49.360 second is a hurtz. That's the that's the old slogan. 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:50.520 Yeah. 0:18:50.560 --> 0:18:52.520 And so if you were if you could see the 0:18:53.280 --> 0:18:57.640 waves coming off of a caesium atom as it returns 0:18:57.680 --> 0:19:00.199 back to its ground state, it got really excited and 0:19:00.240 --> 0:19:03.560 it shoots off a photon, and the photon itself has 0:19:03.680 --> 0:19:05.679 waves where if you could, if you could just stand 0:19:05.720 --> 0:19:08.320 still and watch it pass and count the waves, you 0:19:08.320 --> 0:19:10.879 would count nine billion, one hundred and ninety two million, 0:19:11.119 --> 0:19:13.840 six hundred and thirty one, seven hundred and seventy waves 0:19:13.840 --> 0:19:18.040 passed by you in exactly one second, and it became 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:22.359 so clear that you could literally set your watch to 0:19:22.480 --> 0:19:24.400 this kind of thing if you could figure out how 0:19:24.400 --> 0:19:27.439 to measure it. That back in nineteen sixty seven, the 0:19:27.760 --> 0:19:32.800 international community said, let's just attach the second to the 0:19:32.840 --> 0:19:36.879 caesium atom. Yeah, and the caesium Adam said, I better 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:37.920 get some money for this. 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:44.280 Yeah, Like, let's literally redefine what a second means based 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:47.280 on this caesium one thirty three. Prior to that, it 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:50.800 was based on like, you know, the sun coming up 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:53.119 and going down. It was a solar day, so it 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:58.000 was one eighty six thousand and four hundred thousandth man, 0:19:58.200 --> 0:20:01.120 really hard to keep my head around. One over eighty 0:20:01.160 --> 0:20:05.600 six four hundred is the average length of a solar day, 0:20:05.720 --> 0:20:08.239 just that little fraction. So they said, let's just redefine it, 0:20:08.920 --> 0:20:10.800 and I think we should go through a little bit 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:12.840 sort of the jumps that they made. Yeah, I agree, 0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:15.880 because this is all just kind of like, I mean, 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:18.239 who cares about this? What people really want to know 0:20:18.720 --> 0:20:22.280 is how much more accurate was this stuff in nineteen 0:20:22.320 --> 0:20:25.720 fifty nine. I believe the nineteen fifty five was the 0:20:25.720 --> 0:20:28.600 first season base clock and then in nineteen fifty nine 0:20:29.040 --> 0:20:31.800 they had an error rate of one second per two 0:20:31.920 --> 0:20:37.480 thousand years. Five years later it was second every six 0:20:37.560 --> 0:20:38.320 thousand years. 0:20:38.400 --> 0:20:39.160 It could lose or. 0:20:39.080 --> 0:20:42.399 Gain a second. Let me say, what's the next one 0:20:42.480 --> 0:20:47.280 nineteen ninety nine. Well, let's go to the mid seventies. First, Yeah, 0:20:47.880 --> 0:20:51.240 it was one second every three hundred thousand years, and 0:20:51.320 --> 0:20:54.320 then finally in nineteen ninety nine when they debuted the 0:20:54.359 --> 0:20:57.880 caesium fountain, which that's still what they're using today, right. 0:20:58.000 --> 0:21:00.800 Yeah, that's kind of the general state of the art, 0:21:01.080 --> 0:21:03.479 although they're just still looking into new stuff too. 0:21:03.640 --> 0:21:05.080 How much better do you need to get it? Though? 0:21:05.359 --> 0:21:06.520 They're getting it pretty good. 0:21:07.200 --> 0:21:10.000 So nineteen ninety nine it became you could lose a 0:21:10.040 --> 0:21:13.800 second every twenty million years, and then by twenty thirteen 0:21:14.000 --> 0:21:17.440 they said we can actually go back in time and 0:21:17.480 --> 0:21:20.199 say that using this method, we have not lost a 0:21:20.240 --> 0:21:21.520 second since the Big Bang. 0:21:22.880 --> 0:21:25.960 Right. So that last one you mentioned is a strontium 0:21:26.280 --> 0:21:30.240 lattice clock, which is again we just talked about. Once 0:21:30.280 --> 0:21:32.919 we figure out how to measure the vibration of an 0:21:32.960 --> 0:21:35.800 atom once it's excited and returns to its ground state, 0:21:36.000 --> 0:21:38.720 it's just a question of becoming better and better at 0:21:38.800 --> 0:21:41.399 measuring it. And so they figured out that if you 0:21:41.440 --> 0:21:46.960 hold strontium atoms in laser beams form a lattice, you 0:21:47.000 --> 0:21:49.160 can basically hold them in place and measure them much 0:21:49.200 --> 0:21:53.240 more accurately. And so that's what represented that crazy amazing leap. 0:21:53.720 --> 0:21:55.400 And I was trying to figure out, like, how can 0:21:55.440 --> 0:21:58.040 they say, like, this thing would not have lost a 0:21:58.080 --> 0:22:00.520 second since the beginning of the universe. How can you 0:22:00.520 --> 0:22:04.280 possibly do that? It really is, But they know how 0:22:04.320 --> 0:22:05.960 to back it up. So what they do is they'll 0:22:06.000 --> 0:22:10.800 compare the output of one stronium clock to another stronium clock, 0:22:11.359 --> 0:22:15.120 and the difference, the biggest difference between the two. They'll 0:22:15.160 --> 0:22:18.280 take that and say that that's the discrepancy, right, And 0:22:18.480 --> 0:22:23.080 because these things vibrate at such crazy huge numbers per second, 0:22:23.680 --> 0:22:27.240 that the like the loss of like one or two 0:22:27.359 --> 0:22:31.600 waves over a second, it just adds up to these 0:22:31.720 --> 0:22:37.119 crazy huge numbers. So it lost one wave essentially for 0:22:37.240 --> 0:22:40.480 every ten to the tenth power waves, which is like 0:22:40.840 --> 0:22:44.080 I think ten billion waves, right. So when you start 0:22:44.080 --> 0:22:46.160 adding that up to the number of seconds in a day, 0:22:46.359 --> 0:22:49.600 in a year, in a century, you suddenly realize like, Okay, 0:22:49.680 --> 0:22:52.359 this thing is not going to lose a second for 0:22:53.119 --> 0:22:56.720 you know, fifteen billion years. That's how they do that. 0:22:57.880 --> 0:23:00.240 Amazing math is how they do it. 0:23:00.240 --> 0:23:02.520 I should say, let's give matho its due for once. 0:23:02.760 --> 0:23:06.320 Yeah, all the maths as they say in England for sure. 0:23:06.800 --> 0:23:10.280 So we're going to explain how this works now. Kind 0:23:10.320 --> 0:23:14.960 of the remarkable surprise of it all is that these 0:23:15.000 --> 0:23:17.720 things and I guess it's not much of a surprise 0:23:17.760 --> 0:23:19.760 because I mentioned it at the very beginning, it could 0:23:19.800 --> 0:23:24.040 have been, but they still use quartz as part of 0:23:24.080 --> 0:23:26.840 this system. It's just it's a feedback loop that starts 0:23:26.880 --> 0:23:30.560 with a quartz crystal and ends up with the quartz crystal, 0:23:31.119 --> 0:23:36.960 and in between this science voodoo happens. That just is 0:23:37.080 --> 0:23:40.679 all about self correcting as it feeds back into that 0:23:40.800 --> 0:23:44.480 quartz crystal to be you know, shot back out again 0:23:44.560 --> 0:23:45.800 in the form of microwaves. 0:23:46.400 --> 0:23:48.520 Yes, And I'm glad that you really kind of stepped 0:23:48.560 --> 0:23:53.040 up and took charge here, because when we're researching, we'll 0:23:53.080 --> 0:23:55.920 send like you know, especially day of stuff. We'll send 0:23:55.960 --> 0:23:59.360 just like little last minute details or maybe better explanations 0:23:59.359 --> 0:24:03.679 of something that we have when we're researching, and Chuck 0:24:03.960 --> 0:24:06.920 stepped up and was like, okay, let's not over explain this. 0:24:06.920 --> 0:24:10.359 This is actually kind of a simple thing in concept, 0:24:10.520 --> 0:24:13.840 and you rescue me from sheer madness. 0:24:14.480 --> 0:24:15.920 It is our thing though. 0:24:16.160 --> 0:24:19.000 I had looked into the abyss and found atomic clocks 0:24:19.080 --> 0:24:22.320 just staring back at me, and it was something that 0:24:22.560 --> 0:24:25.000 really you really rescued me from it, and I appreciate it. 0:24:25.040 --> 0:24:26.320 I want to say hats off to you. 0:24:26.560 --> 0:24:29.320 Well, thanks, but we're not done. Oh God, like, there's 0:24:29.359 --> 0:24:31.840 still a chance to over explain this into confusion. 0:24:32.040 --> 0:24:34.800 Well, then allow me to try that, all. 0:24:34.800 --> 0:24:38.720 Right, take it away, because it's all about this outermost electron, right. 0:24:39.040 --> 0:24:41.680 Yeah, yeah, so with caesium, I guess then the reason 0:24:41.760 --> 0:24:45.840 they selected caesium is because it has fifty five electrons. 0:24:45.880 --> 0:24:47.840 Fifty four of them are so tightly locked in orbit 0:24:47.880 --> 0:24:51.080 around the nucleus that they basically don't get excited. Yeah, 0:24:51.119 --> 0:24:54.320 that fifty fifth outer most electron, though, it gets excited 0:24:54.359 --> 0:24:58.320 pretty easy, right, But it only gets excited when it's 0:24:58.359 --> 0:25:04.199 exposed to frequent sea of electromagnetic radiations at specifically nine billion, 0:25:04.280 --> 0:25:06.800 one hundred ninety two million, six hundred and thirty one 0:25:06.840 --> 0:25:09.440 and seven hundred and seventy cycles or hurtz. 0:25:09.720 --> 0:25:11.320 If you offered ice cream. 0:25:12.000 --> 0:25:14.240 It gets kind of excited. Sure, yeah, but it may 0:25:14.240 --> 0:25:16.439 not fall out of its ground state. It depends. Is 0:25:16.440 --> 0:25:19.480 it Jenny's ice cream? Is it that like butter cake? 0:25:19.560 --> 0:25:22.520 Gooey butter cake? It's gonna get excited from that one. 0:25:22.720 --> 0:25:25.960 Is it just you know some dippy old you know 0:25:26.080 --> 0:25:30.480 Briars that's been in for several months. Yeah, there's no 0:25:30.520 --> 0:25:32.639 shade on briars. But if it sits there for a 0:25:32.640 --> 0:25:35.360 few months, it's kind of form ice crystals. Nobody, even 0:25:35.400 --> 0:25:37.480 the caesium Adam's not going to get excited by this. 0:25:37.800 --> 0:25:38.520 Yeah, what was it in? 0:25:38.760 --> 0:25:39.119 Uh? 0:25:39.640 --> 0:25:41.560 Did you see the Alfred Brooks movie Mother. 0:25:43.040 --> 0:25:43.760 Albert Brooks? 0:25:43.800 --> 0:25:44.960 And yes, what I say? 0:25:45.720 --> 0:25:47.720 I think you said Alfred Brooks and I think that's 0:25:47.760 --> 0:25:48.280 his butler. 0:25:49.680 --> 0:25:52.879 Well no, but well now that we're off on this track, 0:25:52.920 --> 0:25:55.439 you know their original name was Einstein. Albert Einstein was 0:25:55.440 --> 0:25:59.320 his name? No, Albert Brooks's name, yes, because his brother 0:25:59.880 --> 0:26:01.760 was super Dave Osborne Bob Einstein. 0:26:02.440 --> 0:26:04.639 Oh my goodness, yes, I forgot about it. 0:26:04.640 --> 0:26:08.720 Obviously changed his name, but yeah, his his movie Mother 0:26:09.200 --> 0:26:12.400 with a great Debbie Reynolds. 0:26:12.200 --> 0:26:13.120 Kerrie Fisher's mom. 0:26:13.560 --> 0:26:15.879 That's right, boy, we're just all over the place. 0:26:16.080 --> 0:26:18.720 Yep, there was a very funny joke about the ice 0:26:18.760 --> 0:26:19.880 crystals on the ice. 0:26:19.680 --> 0:26:21.439 Cream, and I can't remember what she called it, but 0:26:21.760 --> 0:26:22.320 something like. 0:26:22.240 --> 0:26:25.240 A protective barrier or something that it forms like to 0:26:25.320 --> 0:26:27.840 really preserve the ice cream underneath that is. 0:26:27.880 --> 0:26:30.399 So that's a good one. I feel bad for Fleischmann 0:26:30.400 --> 0:26:32.399 from Northern Exposure because he has to play such a 0:26:32.480 --> 0:26:33.720 jerk and he does it so well. 0:26:34.280 --> 0:26:35.920 Yeah. 0:26:36.400 --> 0:26:39.000 I saw an episode of that, a couple of episodes 0:26:39.040 --> 0:26:39.760 on our last tour. 0:26:39.760 --> 0:26:42.639 Actually, you know, Chuck, I think have you seen the 0:26:42.640 --> 0:26:43.240 whole series? 0:26:43.720 --> 0:26:45.359 I mean I saw it back when I was a 0:26:45.440 --> 0:26:47.520 huge Northern fan, but then watched a couple I watched 0:26:47.560 --> 0:26:50.520 the first two EPs when we were I was in 0:26:50.520 --> 0:26:52.520 the hotel in one of our towns. 0:26:52.720 --> 0:26:53.800 And how did it hold up? 0:26:54.400 --> 0:26:57.000 You know, it held up pretty good for a show 0:26:57.040 --> 0:26:57.560 of that era. 0:26:58.440 --> 0:27:01.800 Okay, great, fantastic. Did you look glad to hear that? Yeah? 0:27:01.840 --> 0:27:03.399 I loved it. I was gonna say I think that 0:27:03.680 --> 0:27:06.320 the last episode was one of the best last episodes 0:27:06.320 --> 0:27:09.520 of any show ever. I don't remember it or no, okay, sorry, 0:27:09.520 --> 0:27:13.119 not last episode. Fleischman's last episode, oh oh, when. 0:27:12.960 --> 0:27:15.359 He goes back to New York Okay, I don't remember. 0:27:15.359 --> 0:27:18.160 Did he leave in the show continued, Yeah, very little, 0:27:18.160 --> 0:27:21.960 while I don't remember this guy. When Steve Carell left 0:27:21.960 --> 0:27:23.120 the office, I was done. 0:27:23.440 --> 0:27:26.440 Yeah, his last Uh. There was some moments of brilliance 0:27:26.440 --> 0:27:29.199 in there in the office after Corell left, but it 0:27:29.280 --> 0:27:33.120 wasn't Yeah, it wasn't reliably great every single episode. Yeah, 0:27:33.160 --> 0:27:35.199 and they got whackier and whackier as time went on. 0:27:35.280 --> 0:27:37.800 But that happens, especially when a showrunner leaves too. 0:27:38.200 --> 0:27:40.480 How do we get sidetracked? I'm talking about the ice talking. 0:27:40.359 --> 0:27:42.680 About yeah, mother. And by the way, I just wanted 0:27:42.720 --> 0:27:45.840 to give a shout out to the Alfred Brooks a 0:27:47.000 --> 0:27:50.600 movie Defending Your Life so great, far and away his 0:27:50.680 --> 0:27:52.159 best movie, if you ask me. 0:27:52.359 --> 0:27:54.560 There's a really good documentary on him that's out now 0:27:54.560 --> 0:27:56.560 that Rob Reiner did in case you're interested. 0:27:56.800 --> 0:27:59.560 Okay, cool, all right, So we're back to seesium and 0:27:59.560 --> 0:28:01.960 I was saying that it gets excited at that same 0:28:02.040 --> 0:28:05.720 frequency that it emits a photon at, right, That's what 0:28:05.840 --> 0:28:08.800 it takes. And so what they figured out is that 0:28:08.880 --> 0:28:13.600 you can figure you can find out if your quartz, 0:28:13.640 --> 0:28:16.040 crystal oscillat or the thing that you're using to keep 0:28:16.080 --> 0:28:20.479 time with it's super reliable. But again it gets subject 0:28:20.520 --> 0:28:24.520 to frequency drift here or there. But if you can 0:28:24.600 --> 0:28:28.920 find out how far off or whether it's keeping reliable 0:28:28.960 --> 0:28:32.679 time by comparing it to the excitement of a caesium atom. 0:28:33.280 --> 0:28:37.119 If the quartz crystal is putting out the right frequency, 0:28:37.200 --> 0:28:40.800 the caesium atom will become excited and it will shoot 0:28:40.800 --> 0:28:43.480 off a photon. And if enough of them do that 0:28:43.640 --> 0:28:47.440 in this atomic clock, this gas chamber essentially that they have, 0:28:47.960 --> 0:28:50.800 then you know that your quartz crystal is keeping the 0:28:50.880 --> 0:28:56.240 right time because it's emitting the right number of pulses itself. 0:28:57.800 --> 0:29:00.160 The thing is chuck And this is where the madness lies. 0:29:00.160 --> 0:29:03.560 For me. I don't understand how they take thirty two 0:29:03.600 --> 0:29:08.800 thousand and change hurts coming from the Qurtz crystal and 0:29:08.840 --> 0:29:12.880 translate that into nine billion and change hurts that excites 0:29:12.920 --> 0:29:15.120 the caesium atam. That's what I don't get. Do you 0:29:15.160 --> 0:29:15.440 get that? 0:29:16.920 --> 0:29:17.080 Well? 0:29:17.120 --> 0:29:19.720 The way I understood it is that those two things 0:29:19.720 --> 0:29:24.200 are working independently, Like the caesium is doing its thing 0:29:24.360 --> 0:29:27.440 at nine billion plus hurts, okay, just to get a 0:29:27.440 --> 0:29:32.920 more accurate measurement, and then it's sending that correction via 0:29:35.000 --> 0:29:38.360 another electronic signal. I think it goes into what's called 0:29:38.360 --> 0:29:40.680 the detector. That's to me where the magic is, because 0:29:40.880 --> 0:29:43.240 I watch a bunch of videos, even kids science videos, 0:29:43.680 --> 0:29:46.520 and it just says it goes into the detector, yeah, 0:29:46.520 --> 0:29:49.400 and then back out feeding into the courts. 0:29:49.440 --> 0:29:49.720 Again. 0:29:50.880 --> 0:29:52.640 I don't know what happens in that detector. I mean 0:29:52.640 --> 0:29:53.320 it's detecting. 0:29:54.600 --> 0:29:57.240 Yeah. I think they're actually tracking the photons. It's one 0:29:57.240 --> 0:29:58.800 of the beauties of it. And I think that's why 0:29:58.840 --> 0:30:03.280 they kept courts crystal technology run is because it releases 0:30:03.400 --> 0:30:06.960 radio waves and we can read those really easily, so 0:30:07.080 --> 0:30:09.240 that has that's one reason they kept quts around. It 0:30:09.280 --> 0:30:11.800 keeps good time and we understand it really well. But 0:30:12.280 --> 0:30:14.240 so this is but this is where I'm thrown off, Like, 0:30:14.440 --> 0:30:18.880 are they comparing the number of ticks that the courtz 0:30:18.920 --> 0:30:21.880 is giving off to the number of ticks that the 0:30:21.920 --> 0:30:24.680 caesium atom is given off and that's the same time 0:30:24.760 --> 0:30:27.640 span and the If the two match, then you know 0:30:27.720 --> 0:30:30.840 the Courts is still keeping good time. If it's off 0:30:30.840 --> 0:30:32.840 a little bit, then you know how much to adjust it, 0:30:33.200 --> 0:30:37.400 because that caesium atom is not going to release any 0:30:37.440 --> 0:30:41.160 more waves than that number. It's just not there's never 0:30:41.200 --> 0:30:43.560 going to be seven hundred and seventy one. There's never 0:30:43.600 --> 0:30:46.240 going to be seven hundred and sixty nine. It's always 0:30:46.280 --> 0:30:48.760 going to be that nine billion number. So I guess 0:30:48.800 --> 0:30:51.320 if you compare how many of the crystal, which can 0:30:52.000 --> 0:30:54.160 have more or less over time depending on how well 0:30:54.160 --> 0:30:56.880 it's functioning, If you compare those two, then you know 0:30:56.960 --> 0:31:00.600 that your courtz clock is keeping fully act. You're at time? 0:31:00.720 --> 0:31:01.680 Is that what it is? 0:31:01.960 --> 0:31:04.920 I think that's the deal and all that it does 0:31:05.040 --> 0:31:09.240 once it reads once those atoms are like, no, you're 0:31:09.240 --> 0:31:11.720 actually off a little bit. I think it just tweaks 0:31:11.720 --> 0:31:15.840 that original electric current in the feedback loop feeding back 0:31:15.840 --> 0:31:16.600 into the courts. 0:31:17.280 --> 0:31:21.720 Right, it punishes right chords crystal in the form of bank. 0:31:21.960 --> 0:31:22.280 No. 0:31:22.280 --> 0:31:25.080 No, it's like that that one guy who's being tested 0:31:25.360 --> 0:31:29.320 for ESP at the beginning of Ghostbut no, not again. 0:31:30.720 --> 0:31:33.800 I mean, I think I think that's I think that's it. Great, 0:31:34.440 --> 0:31:34.880 good night. 0:31:35.960 --> 0:31:37.920 So let's talk about the second a little more because 0:31:37.960 --> 0:31:39.480 I think we kind of jump past and I think 0:31:39.480 --> 0:31:43.880 it's worth including the actual definition because it's so great. 0:31:44.520 --> 0:31:47.240 Yeah, what is it now? Since the official change? 0:31:48.040 --> 0:31:49.800 Yeah, so this is what they changed to in nineteen 0:31:49.920 --> 0:31:53.480 sixty seven the second. They're talking about the second. Every 0:31:53.680 --> 0:31:56.400 everybody who walks around is like, yeah, there's sixty seconds 0:31:56.440 --> 0:31:59.880 in a minute. This is the international definition of what 0:32:00.120 --> 0:32:04.120 a second is. It's the duration of nine billion, one 0:32:04.200 --> 0:32:07.680 hundred and ninety two million, six hundred and thirty one thousand, 0:32:07.760 --> 0:32:12.320 seven hundred and seventy periods of the radiation corresponding to 0:32:12.400 --> 0:32:15.760 the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground 0:32:15.760 --> 0:32:19.400 state of the caesium one thirty three atom. By the way, everybody, 0:32:20.000 --> 0:32:22.959 this definition refers to a caesium atom at rest at 0:32:23.000 --> 0:32:24.480 a temperature of zero calvin. 0:32:24.720 --> 0:32:25.720 Yeah. 0:32:25.760 --> 0:32:29.080 Wow, so yeah, but you're like, okay, that that doesn't 0:32:29.080 --> 0:32:30.840 really make any sense. But now that you understand how 0:32:30.880 --> 0:32:34.600 atomic clocks are work, it does make sense. They're saying, 0:32:34.640 --> 0:32:39.320 if you have something that is timed to this, you 0:32:39.480 --> 0:32:42.200 have a second. That's a second, right there. Everybody's going 0:32:42.240 --> 0:32:45.000 to be on the same measure. That's why it's the 0:32:45.120 --> 0:32:49.120 international standard. Everyone is on the same measure, and the 0:32:49.120 --> 0:32:52.720 caesium atom is never going to give out more or 0:32:52.840 --> 0:32:55.880 less of those waves when it's excited. 0:32:56.360 --> 0:32:59.400 Yeah, and like you said, you know the reason. One 0:32:59.400 --> 0:33:04.080 of the reasons that quarts was used is because we 0:33:04.160 --> 0:33:07.479 had worked with it up until that point. We understood it. 0:33:07.560 --> 0:33:10.520 A lot of the tech was built around it. We've 0:33:10.560 --> 0:33:13.960 known how to work with it and repair things using it. 0:33:14.040 --> 0:33:14.720 So like, they. 0:33:14.600 --> 0:33:17.760 Didn't want to reinvent the wheel here, they just wanted 0:33:18.160 --> 0:33:21.520 to make that quartz run more perfectly. And it turned 0:33:21.560 --> 0:33:25.360 out it was, you know, sitting around in ore deposits 0:33:25.440 --> 0:33:27.480 and where what Maine and South Dakota. 0:33:27.920 --> 0:33:30.400 Yeah, and polar stasium comes from. It's pretty rare. 0:33:30.640 --> 0:33:33.520 Yeah. And the other thing that strikes me about this 0:33:33.600 --> 0:33:36.560 Chuck too, was when we adopted that second in nineteen 0:33:36.600 --> 0:33:40.400 sixty seven and removed our seconds from the solar day 0:33:40.520 --> 0:33:41.800 because it's so inaccurate. 0:33:42.400 --> 0:33:42.840 Cluegi. 0:33:43.000 --> 0:33:47.840 Really, we actually became better at tracking the solar day 0:33:47.880 --> 0:33:51.520 when we turned our attention to tracking the atom for 0:33:52.120 --> 0:33:55.080 use as a benchmark for time rather than the solar day. 0:33:55.160 --> 0:33:56.840 I think that's pretty neat and ironic. 0:33:57.160 --> 0:34:00.240 Yeah, I mean they've calculated that too, right, Like, because 0:34:00.280 --> 0:34:04.840 now we have what's called International Atomic Time t AI. 0:34:05.000 --> 0:34:08.560 It's one of those backwards French things, Yeah. 0:34:08.360 --> 0:34:12.719 Backwards French things, but now we can actually track using 0:34:12.800 --> 0:34:18.400 universal time and against the Earth's rotation, and you know, 0:34:18.440 --> 0:34:21.640 the fact that we're off because you know, things can 0:34:21.719 --> 0:34:27.200 slow the Earth down, space, dust, scan, solar winds, atmospheric resistance, 0:34:28.080 --> 0:34:30.839 the moon, you know, and gravity tugging on the Earth. 0:34:30.880 --> 0:34:35.440 So they can say now that UTC coordinated Universal Time 0:34:35.920 --> 0:34:40.320 is thirty seconds behind the TAI. 0:34:40.600 --> 0:34:43.279 Right, which is pretty pretty cool to be able to 0:34:43.360 --> 0:34:43.600 know that. 0:34:43.920 --> 0:34:48.240 Yeah, they're like they're keeping better track of the spin 0:34:48.280 --> 0:34:50.560 of the Earth than the spin of the Earth is. Yeah, 0:34:50.719 --> 0:34:53.640 it's like it's crazy, Like they figured out that the 0:34:53.719 --> 0:34:56.480 Earth is slowing down by about two milliseconds each day. 0:34:56.960 --> 0:34:59.520 Could not have done that when you're pinning the second 0:34:59.560 --> 0:35:03.200 to one eighty six four hundredth of a solar day. 0:35:03.760 --> 0:35:06.319 You need atomic clocks to measure stuff like that. So 0:35:06.400 --> 0:35:09.879 I just think that's just fantastically neat. And they've done 0:35:09.920 --> 0:35:12.319 so many other stuff. There's so many other things with 0:35:12.400 --> 0:35:14.640 us already too. I say we take a break and 0:35:14.640 --> 0:35:17.160 we come back and talk about some of the applications 0:35:17.160 --> 0:35:19.919 for timekeeping in an ultra precise way. 0:35:20.480 --> 0:35:28.320 Let's do it. So. 0:35:45.760 --> 0:35:48.080 Atomic clocks were a huge leap forward, but they were 0:35:48.160 --> 0:35:51.080 very big at first. Obviously, with all kinds of tech 0:35:51.120 --> 0:35:53.759 like this, it just gets smaller and smaller. I think 0:35:53.800 --> 0:35:56.920 about twenty years ago they built an atomic clock that 0:35:57.040 --> 0:36:02.280 could be put upon a microprocessor. It's crazy, totally crazy, 0:36:02.520 --> 0:36:05.719 And it's important to point out here that there are 0:36:06.520 --> 0:36:08.680 a little more than four hundred atomic clocks all over 0:36:08.719 --> 0:36:12.560 the world and more than seventy labs operating these clocks. 0:36:13.000 --> 0:36:16.279 But you still need, like you know, one ring to 0:36:16.360 --> 0:36:19.440 rule them all. You need one clock to tell all 0:36:19.480 --> 0:36:20.239 the clocks what. 0:36:20.160 --> 0:36:20.799 Time it is. 0:36:21.000 --> 0:36:25.799 So the International Bureau waits and Measures averages all these 0:36:25.840 --> 0:36:29.120 atomic clocks that are operating in the world. It gives 0:36:29.239 --> 0:36:31.480 better weight to the ones that are really accurate. So 0:36:31.520 --> 0:36:34.359 if you've got a gold star because your atomic clock 0:36:34.360 --> 0:36:36.520 in your lab is super accurate, you're going to be 0:36:36.600 --> 0:36:37.520 more heavily weighted. 0:36:37.840 --> 0:36:40.000 If there's a lot of known pot users in your lab, 0:36:40.080 --> 0:36:41.840 they're not going to wait it as heavily. 0:36:42.640 --> 0:36:44.880 So well, ironically we'll see here in a minute. It 0:36:44.920 --> 0:36:48.960 comes from Colorado, but it is. Then they're like, all right, 0:36:49.000 --> 0:36:53.360 this is the real time for the entire world, and 0:36:53.400 --> 0:36:56.600 then they message that out as what I mentioned earlier, 0:36:56.719 --> 0:37:00.840 International atomic time and here in the United States, or 0:37:00.920 --> 0:37:03.640 I guess in all of North America that is broadcast 0:37:03.680 --> 0:37:08.799 out from a radio station in Fort Collins, Colorado, WWVB 0:37:09.520 --> 0:37:11.799 that all American clocks sink to. 0:37:12.880 --> 0:37:15.799 Yeah, there all control clocks exactly. Yeah. So if you 0:37:15.840 --> 0:37:19.279 have an atomic watch or an atomic alarm clock or 0:37:19.280 --> 0:37:23.239 something at your house, it's actually passively picking up those 0:37:23.320 --> 0:37:27.359 radio waves from WWVB, and those radio waves are telling 0:37:27.360 --> 0:37:29.760 the clock what time it is. So it's keeping accurate 0:37:29.800 --> 0:37:34.920 time because it's getting the information from from radio WWVB, 0:37:35.440 --> 0:37:37.400 Radio Free Europe. 0:37:37.960 --> 0:37:39.799 Yeah, but that's the time that they're like, all right, 0:37:39.840 --> 0:37:42.600 this is what time it is on the internet, and 0:37:42.640 --> 0:37:44.960 that's what time all your trains are gonna run and 0:37:45.000 --> 0:37:48.280 your planes are gonna take off in land. Yeah, although 0:37:48.280 --> 0:37:51.319 those are always gonna be late. But you know, if 0:37:51.320 --> 0:37:55.319 we're operating in space, if we're using GPS, and you 0:37:55.320 --> 0:37:57.160 can explain the thing you found on GPS because that 0:37:57.200 --> 0:37:59.319 was pretty cool, But all of it is set to 0:37:59.400 --> 0:38:02.840 that that agreed upon average of all those atomic clocks. 0:38:03.200 --> 0:38:05.920 Yeah. And some people have their own like timekeeping stuff 0:38:05.960 --> 0:38:08.680 like if you if you have an iPhone or Android 0:38:08.760 --> 0:38:13.040 or something like that, whoever is serving that that phone 0:38:13.719 --> 0:38:16.719 has their own time servers, but their time servers are 0:38:16.760 --> 0:38:19.960 still if you trace it back far enough. Some they're 0:38:19.960 --> 0:38:22.799 getting their information from the atomic clocks that are being 0:38:22.920 --> 0:38:25.960 maintained at least in the US by the National Institutes 0:38:26.000 --> 0:38:28.239 of Standard and Technology. And then we also have to 0:38:28.239 --> 0:38:30.960 give a shout out to the US Naval Observatory. They 0:38:31.040 --> 0:38:34.239 started at first, and they still maintain their own set 0:38:34.280 --> 0:38:37.759 of atomic clocks, and they are the official timekeeper for 0:38:37.800 --> 0:38:40.759 the Department of Defense. But they're also the ones that 0:38:40.800 --> 0:38:44.200 you can call to get the accurate time. And in 0:38:44.280 --> 0:38:46.719 the United States you can call two two seven six 0:38:46.840 --> 0:38:50.160 two one four oh one, and you will hear the 0:38:50.200 --> 0:38:52.080 voice of a man from the seventies who died in 0:38:52.120 --> 0:38:55.440 the nineties who's still telling you what time it is. 0:38:55.480 --> 0:38:58.680 He apparently spent several days. Fred Goldsmith, I think. 0:38:58.680 --> 0:38:59.560 What's that number again? 0:39:00.200 --> 0:39:03.480 Two oh two seven six two fourteen oh one. 0:39:04.520 --> 0:39:07.080 All right, I'm typing that into my phone because I 0:39:07.120 --> 0:39:11.600 had a weird urge about two months ago to call 0:39:11.640 --> 0:39:14.359 time like we did when we were kids. You could 0:39:14.400 --> 0:39:16.879 call and get time and weather. You're still chances yep, 0:39:17.040 --> 0:39:18.800 all right, I'm glad to know that's the thing, because 0:39:18.840 --> 0:39:20.800 I'm gonna I'm gonna do it from the phone that 0:39:20.880 --> 0:39:23.120 I know has all that information on it so so. 0:39:23.120 --> 0:39:26.640 Yeah, I was reading like an AARP article on appropriately enough, 0:39:26.719 --> 0:39:29.440 and I think they already get the name is Fred 0:39:29.520 --> 0:39:32.560 Fred Goldsmith, right, Uh yeah, that's where I get a 0:39:32.560 --> 0:39:33.400 lot of this information. 0:39:33.520 --> 0:39:35.040 No, no, no, but are you getting mailers yet? 0:39:35.560 --> 0:39:37.640 Uh? No, I found it on the internet. 0:39:37.760 --> 0:39:39.360 Okay, just way that you get your first mailer. 0:39:39.640 --> 0:39:46.920 He apparently recorded every possible time it could be, including seconds, 0:39:47.280 --> 0:39:49.719 over the course of several days, and they still use 0:39:49.800 --> 0:39:51.799 these recordings to tell you what time it is. 0:39:52.080 --> 0:39:52.480 Amazing. 0:39:52.960 --> 0:39:54.719 One of the other amazing things I saw was like 0:39:55.040 --> 0:39:57.880 they just expected this to kind of go away once 0:39:58.600 --> 0:40:01.800 smartphones became so quit, people just didn't need it anymore. 0:40:02.120 --> 0:40:06.759 Your phone is automatically communicating with your server, the time 0:40:06.880 --> 0:40:10.080 server for your phone company. Nope. In two thousand and nine, 0:40:10.120 --> 0:40:13.120 they actually started to see an increase in calls. So 0:40:13.239 --> 0:40:16.360 now people called more than they did in the early 0:40:16.400 --> 0:40:17.239 two thousands. 0:40:17.719 --> 0:40:20.200 Today, you tell me movie phone is still around, I'm 0:40:20.200 --> 0:40:22.920 gonna just quit my job and do nothing but call 0:40:22.960 --> 0:40:23.839 those numbers all day. 0:40:24.440 --> 0:40:27.719 You remember when Kramer figured out that yeah or no, 0:40:27.800 --> 0:40:30.320 did did people think he had the movie phone numbers? 0:40:30.360 --> 0:40:32.239 So he started thinking being the movie phone. 0:40:32.360 --> 0:40:34.280 Yeah, yeah, And I think that's what happened. 0:40:35.719 --> 0:40:38.160 And when he didn't know the answers like they would 0:40:38.160 --> 0:40:40.239 be punching in the numbers, he would say, why don't 0:40:40.239 --> 0:40:41.360 you just tell me the movie? 0:40:41.640 --> 0:40:42.320 That's right? 0:40:43.480 --> 0:40:49.320 Oh godness good classic rate A r oh Man. 0:40:49.440 --> 0:40:52.000 I watched the Puffy Pirates shirt episode the other day 0:40:52.000 --> 0:40:55.279 and it was and it still holds up. Yeah. 0:40:55.320 --> 0:40:57.680 All right, so we promised talk of GPS. I didn't 0:40:57.680 --> 0:41:00.439 have time to dig into what you sent. So you've 0:41:01.280 --> 0:41:05.440 got it together enough. Can you explain how GPS works? 0:41:05.560 --> 0:41:09.160 Yeah? So you mentioned that some atomic clocks can be 0:41:09.160 --> 0:41:14.200 fit under microchips. Now and you can find those microchips 0:41:14.200 --> 0:41:17.080 and board satellites that orbit space, and we have satellites 0:41:17.120 --> 0:41:21.680 that are dedicated to GPS Global Positioning System. Right, I 0:41:21.719 --> 0:41:23.399 actually found this. I got to give a shout out 0:41:23.400 --> 0:41:27.200 to Rpeds r car, who is just some random person on. 0:41:27.400 --> 0:41:29.799 Cora who we hope got it right. 0:41:29.960 --> 0:41:33.600 Yeah, as long as they are not so masterful at 0:41:35.440 --> 0:41:38.760 mashing facts up and into you know, into lies essentially, 0:41:38.760 --> 0:41:41.160 but just covering it up perfectly, I'm pretty sure this 0:41:41.200 --> 0:41:44.279 guy got it right. But essentially what they do is 0:41:44.600 --> 0:41:47.560 you're if you're like, say you're using ways or something 0:41:47.960 --> 0:41:51.200 which I do use shout out to ways to love it. 0:41:51.200 --> 0:41:55.520 It has an on board GPS receiver somewhere. I don't 0:41:55.560 --> 0:41:57.319 know if it's in the waste server or something like that. 0:41:57.360 --> 0:41:59.919 Maybe it's using your phones. It's probably using your phone. 0:42:00.520 --> 0:42:03.680 And what it's doing is it's receiving a signal from 0:42:03.920 --> 0:42:08.040 the GPS satellite saying here's a signal of some GPS info, 0:42:08.120 --> 0:42:13.200 but also here's a timestamp that came from my own 0:42:13.239 --> 0:42:16.520 atomic clocks that I have on board this satellite. Right, 0:42:16.920 --> 0:42:21.040 And so your GPS receiver gets it, calculates how using 0:42:21.040 --> 0:42:23.279 the speed of light as part of the formula, how 0:42:23.320 --> 0:42:26.279 long it took for you to get that, and then 0:42:26.280 --> 0:42:28.719 it does it again with another satellite and another satellite, 0:42:28.880 --> 0:42:32.719 usually two or three, and based on all of the 0:42:32.760 --> 0:42:35.480 differences between how long it took for those satellites to 0:42:35.520 --> 0:42:38.360 send you that information, it can tell you within I 0:42:38.400 --> 0:42:41.880 think one hundred ten feet or ten meters I think, 0:42:43.360 --> 0:42:46.239 exactly where you are on planet Earth because it triangulates 0:42:46.280 --> 0:42:49.520 your location. And that's all thanks to atomic clocks. It 0:42:49.560 --> 0:42:52.560 wouldn't be possible to do that without atomic clocks. 0:42:52.880 --> 0:42:56.400 Yeah, So I mean, if you're geocaching, next time you 0:42:56.440 --> 0:43:01.440 get that Santana record out of the GOK. Thank an 0:43:01.440 --> 0:43:04.439 atomic clock. Thanks caesium one thirty three. 0:43:04.760 --> 0:43:05.040 Yep. 0:43:05.280 --> 0:43:06.680 Thank the good people of Maine. 0:43:08.080 --> 0:43:10.440 And uh north through South Dakota one of them. 0:43:10.520 --> 0:43:11.560 I think it's South Dakota. 0:43:12.760 --> 0:43:13.160 Uh. 0:43:13.560 --> 0:43:16.080 Was that a callback to like a two thousand and 0:43:16.200 --> 0:43:19.960 nine episode? Is that what we said you could find 0:43:19.960 --> 0:43:22.440 in the geo cash things? Man? 0:43:22.480 --> 0:43:23.160 For a little while. 0:43:23.840 --> 0:43:26.600 I think apparently for a little while, some people were 0:43:27.239 --> 0:43:30.160 stuff you should know. Listeners were putting Santana tapes and CDs. 0:43:30.320 --> 0:43:33.799 It's awesome in geocacius. But I'm sure that's run its course. 0:43:33.880 --> 0:43:36.760 Yeah, maybe not, who knows. I'll bet there's some retro 0:43:36.840 --> 0:43:40.359 geocashers that are like, I got the Santana thing going on. 0:43:40.680 --> 0:43:42.879 Yeah, I think I was saying, geocacias, that's not work. 0:43:43.080 --> 0:43:45.040 I've heard people say that before, although maybe it was 0:43:45.080 --> 0:43:50.600 you from the episode people. Yeah, what else can you 0:43:50.640 --> 0:43:51.799 do with the stuff, chuck? 0:43:52.680 --> 0:43:52.799 Uh? 0:43:53.719 --> 0:43:56.440 I mean I think that's a pretty good summation. 0:43:56.960 --> 0:43:58.680 Well, let me add let me add one more thing. 0:43:58.760 --> 0:44:01.640 You it's been used in physics experiments to its vital 0:44:01.640 --> 0:44:04.640 and physics experience because you're tracking, like say, the decay 0:44:04.680 --> 0:44:07.720 of particles and atom smashers, and that happened so fast 0:44:08.360 --> 0:44:10.879 that you couldn't do it without atomic clocks because they're 0:44:10.880 --> 0:44:14.040 tracking things in the billions of a second. Right, pretty 0:44:14.080 --> 0:44:16.880 good stuff. It's also been used more than once to 0:44:17.120 --> 0:44:21.600 prove Einstein's theory of relativity that there's gravitational time dilation 0:44:21.719 --> 0:44:25.359 depending on the effects of gravity on you and how 0:44:25.400 --> 0:44:28.560 fast you're traveling, as in relation to the speed of light, 0:44:29.920 --> 0:44:32.120 time's either going to move faster or slower for you, 0:44:32.320 --> 0:44:35.399 And so people have taken atomic clocks and put them 0:44:35.400 --> 0:44:39.480 at different elevations. There was a very famous by much 0:44:39.680 --> 0:44:42.960 no I think thirty centimeters for one experiment, and it 0:44:43.040 --> 0:44:46.200 produced differences in time time dilation. But there was a 0:44:46.239 --> 0:44:50.880 really famous experiment called the half lee Keating experiment in 0:44:50.960 --> 0:44:53.560 nineteen seventy one where they put some atomic clocks on 0:44:54.080 --> 0:44:57.080 airliners and just flew around the world and then compared 0:44:57.120 --> 0:45:00.319 them when they got back to the clocks back on Earth, 0:45:00.360 --> 0:45:03.080 and there was a clear distinction between time. It's very 0:45:03.160 --> 0:45:06.520 very slight, but it's enough to prove that, yes, Einstein's 0:45:06.560 --> 0:45:09.680 theory of gravitational time dilation is correct. 0:45:10.239 --> 0:45:13.160 Yeah, like that old thing that you will age faster 0:45:13.320 --> 0:45:15.280 living in the mountains than at sea level. 0:45:15.480 --> 0:45:18.000 Yeah, it is true. 0:45:18.520 --> 0:45:22.319 But I think what they found out was if you'd 0:45:22.360 --> 0:45:26.040 live in the mountains, it'd be about ninety billions of 0:45:26.080 --> 0:45:30.120 a second. Yeah, less life over a seventy nine year lifetime. 0:45:30.280 --> 0:45:34.520 So it's like, why bother even telling us that? 0:45:34.960 --> 0:45:35.400 Exactly? 0:45:36.000 --> 0:45:38.799 There's one other thing too, so we mentioned, oh we 0:45:38.840 --> 0:45:42.160 didn't mention. I'm sorry I left this out. Those GPS 0:45:42.239 --> 0:45:45.880 atomic clocks that they have on board, very very precise. 0:45:46.000 --> 0:45:48.839 They still get updates twice a day from back here 0:45:48.880 --> 0:45:53.600 on Earth from those international timekeepers. Yeah, just to make 0:45:53.680 --> 0:45:57.520 sure that the frequency drift hasn't taken over too much. 0:45:57.560 --> 0:46:00.920 It just updates them. Right, You can't do that the 0:46:01.040 --> 0:46:03.560 further you get out from space. I mean, these satellites 0:46:03.600 --> 0:46:06.200 are only tens or dozens of miles above us. Right. 0:46:07.320 --> 0:46:09.480 As we get further and further out into space, it 0:46:09.480 --> 0:46:11.719 becomes harder and harder to communicate with Earth and to 0:46:11.760 --> 0:46:15.040 get like updates about what time it is. So they're 0:46:15.080 --> 0:46:20.719 looking to build ultra precise atomic clocks that can go 0:46:20.840 --> 0:46:24.560 out in space on board spacecrafts that can keep their 0:46:24.600 --> 0:46:26.920 own time. They don't need any updating from back here 0:46:26.920 --> 0:46:30.399 on Earth. They're going to lose so little time over 0:46:30.480 --> 0:46:33.760 such a long period of time that they will essentially 0:46:33.800 --> 0:46:38.279 stay calibrated to the time back on Earth for incredibly 0:46:38.360 --> 0:46:42.560 long periods of time through incredibly long distances out into space. 0:46:42.920 --> 0:46:45.000 Why haven't they done that yet, that was my sort 0:46:45.000 --> 0:46:45.640 of question. 0:46:46.000 --> 0:46:48.000 Well, they have harder they have. 0:46:48.120 --> 0:46:51.120 NASA launched the Deep Space Atomic Clock in twenty nineteen, 0:46:51.120 --> 0:46:54.879 which is like a test I apparently is going very well. 0:46:55.120 --> 0:46:56.680 Yeah, okay, I was about to say, why don't they 0:46:56.760 --> 0:47:01.160 just throw one of those puppies aboard the spacecraft? 0:47:01.440 --> 0:47:05.520 But they but they did, and they they're using mercury 0:47:05.560 --> 0:47:10.680 ions instead of caesium atoms or astronium. It is because 0:47:10.719 --> 0:47:12.680 so one of the things these atoms, when you have 0:47:12.760 --> 0:47:15.160 them in like a cloud chamber or whatever, they can 0:47:15.280 --> 0:47:17.960 rub up basically against the sides of the chamber and 0:47:18.000 --> 0:47:19.879 it's gonna mess with them a little bit, it's gonna 0:47:19.880 --> 0:47:23.200 mess with your measurements. Some With an ieon, you can 0:47:23.239 --> 0:47:25.919 keep it trapped in an electromagnetic field. It's not gonna 0:47:25.960 --> 0:47:28.320 mess with anything. It's not gonna rub up against anything. 0:47:28.600 --> 0:47:32.040 And so that's how it's it stays so reliable. How 0:47:32.080 --> 0:47:35.520 it's your Your measurements are going to stay reliable for 0:47:35.560 --> 0:47:38.480 a very long time because they're not interacting with you know, 0:47:38.520 --> 0:47:40.360 they're not bumping up against anything. 0:47:40.719 --> 0:47:41.960 Yeah, they're not slam dancing. 0:47:42.760 --> 0:47:45.960 They're doing the billy idol. They're dancing with theirselves. 0:47:46.440 --> 0:47:48.880 Speaking of slam dancing, And I went to Circle Jerks 0:47:48.920 --> 0:47:53.200 and Descendants last week and it was amazing. And there 0:47:53.200 --> 0:47:56.480 are people, there's a there's a pit for sure in 0:47:56.520 --> 0:47:57.280 a long time. 0:47:57.680 --> 0:47:59.720 Did you look down and you me was body serving 0:47:59.760 --> 0:48:00.600 across the crowd. 0:48:00.719 --> 0:48:02.799 No, but she was into it. She was there for 0:48:02.880 --> 0:48:04.960 the Descendants. I was there for the Circle Jerks. But 0:48:05.000 --> 0:48:08.040 both shows were very good. And a fan came up 0:48:08.040 --> 0:48:09.720 and said, hi, at. 0:48:09.560 --> 0:48:12.320 The show, I think I saw an email or something. 0:48:12.719 --> 0:48:15.880 Yeah, yes, she emailed was like, I'm sorry if it 0:48:15.960 --> 0:48:18.320 was like awkward or weird, And it wasn't awkward or 0:48:18.360 --> 0:48:18.879 weird at all. 0:48:19.120 --> 0:48:20.560 Yeah, I'm sure it was wonderful. 0:48:20.680 --> 0:48:23.279 But it was a very good show. And if you 0:48:23.480 --> 0:48:26.080 have a chance to see Descendants in Circle Jerks and 0:48:26.120 --> 0:48:29.000 you like punk, go see it because it's awesome. It's 0:48:29.080 --> 0:48:29.480 very good. 0:48:29.680 --> 0:48:30.600 Still at it. I love it. 0:48:30.760 --> 0:48:33.920 Yeah. If you want to know anything more about atomic clocks, 0:48:34.440 --> 0:48:37.239 you can find a whole rabbit hole to go down. 0:48:37.840 --> 0:48:41.520 See if you can escape madness yourself. In the meantime, 0:48:41.520 --> 0:48:42.680 it's time for listener mail. 0:48:45.000 --> 0:48:47.560 This is one that we've tried to get on recently. 0:48:47.600 --> 0:48:50.880 It's another Peanuts one, but this is a standout. Hey, guys, 0:48:51.120 --> 0:48:54.000 Charles Schultz was a huge part of my childhood, though 0:48:54.040 --> 0:48:57.120 I never never met the man. He spent a short 0:48:57.120 --> 0:48:59.680 amount of time living in Colorado Springs early in his career. 0:49:00.120 --> 0:49:03.000 While living there, painted a mural on the nursery room 0:49:03.040 --> 0:49:05.960 in the house that had many early depictions of the 0:49:06.000 --> 0:49:10.000 Peanuts characters. Years later, long after he moved out, my grandparents, 0:49:10.440 --> 0:49:15.640 Stan and Polly Trabnachek bought the house. Over the years, 0:49:15.640 --> 0:49:17.640 they heard rumors from neighbors that Al Schultz had lived 0:49:17.680 --> 0:49:19.719 there and painted a wall. At this point, the wall 0:49:19.719 --> 0:49:22.440 had been painted over several times, but my grandma is 0:49:22.480 --> 0:49:24.960 an amateur painter, you know a thing or two about paint. 0:49:25.040 --> 0:49:28.279 So after lots of deliberating and researching, she decided to 0:49:28.320 --> 0:49:30.560 try and remove the layers of paint over the mural 0:49:30.880 --> 0:49:34.480 bit by bit using cotton swabs. Wait to go, man, 0:49:34.600 --> 0:49:37.719 I love Polly Trabnachek for doing this, because it would 0:49:37.719 --> 0:49:40.279 have been lost the time the wall and all the 0:49:40.360 --> 0:49:44.120 characters were revealed. Many of my childhood memories involved that wall. 0:49:44.200 --> 0:49:47.320 My parents, my grandparents sorry, would even give free tours 0:49:47.320 --> 0:49:51.080 of the wall to anyone interested. And this gets so great. 0:49:51.680 --> 0:49:54.799 When mister Schultz passed away, my grandparents reached out to 0:49:54.880 --> 0:49:57.360 the family offered to donate the wall to be a 0:49:57.360 --> 0:50:00.319 part of the Schultz Museum. So the estate core NATed 0:50:00.440 --> 0:50:03.400 to have that wall literally cut from the house, loaded 0:50:03.440 --> 0:50:06.239 onto a truck and shipped to California. I will never 0:50:06.280 --> 0:50:09.320 forget that cold, rainy fall day in Colorado was around 0:50:09.440 --> 0:50:12.480 nine or ten years old. The Schultz family treated my 0:50:12.520 --> 0:50:15.920 grandparents like cherished friends for years after that, and even 0:50:16.000 --> 0:50:19.440 flew them out first class to be there for the 0:50:19.480 --> 0:50:22.520 opening of the museum. Mister Schultz was a wonderful man, 0:50:22.640 --> 0:50:25.120 had an amazing family and made the world a better place. 0:50:25.520 --> 0:50:28.759 And that is for Mike de Youong and I saw 0:50:28.840 --> 0:50:32.600 pictures and it was really pretty unbelievable. You can google 0:50:32.640 --> 0:50:35.080 this wall and look it up, and I can't imagine 0:50:35.480 --> 0:50:42.160 the effort that his Granny Travnacheck, Nana Travna Check Nana 0:50:42.200 --> 0:50:48.319 Travnacheck put forth to tediously, meticulously expose that great work 0:50:48.320 --> 0:50:48.680 of art. 0:50:48.920 --> 0:50:51.560 Also, Chuck, She was researching this at a time where 0:50:51.600 --> 0:50:53.520 you had to like go to the library to find 0:50:53.600 --> 0:50:57.760 stuff this out and they ruined it. Yeah, oh easily 0:50:58.160 --> 0:51:00.799 it could have been like that monkey g this art 0:51:00.840 --> 0:51:06.680 restoration thing, you remember that, uh huh okay. And I 0:51:06.719 --> 0:51:09.200 also want to point out that the Schultz Museum flew 0:51:09.239 --> 0:51:12.000 them out first class, back when first class actually meant 0:51:12.000 --> 0:51:16.200 something too oh burn. So yeah, there it is the 0:51:16.239 --> 0:51:20.200 most triumphant, greatest Peanuts email we received from that episode. 0:51:20.280 --> 0:51:22.240 We got a lot of good ones, but Mike Dion 0:51:22.400 --> 0:51:25.160 took the cake. So thanks for telling us all that, Mike, 0:51:25.520 --> 0:51:29.120 and hats off to Granny Nana travna Check and the 0:51:29.160 --> 0:51:32.200 whole family and the Schultz Museum. That was pretty cool stuff. 0:51:32.760 --> 0:51:34.120 If you want to get in touch with us like 0:51:34.280 --> 0:51:36.920 Mike did, we'd love to hear from you via email 0:51:37.200 --> 0:51:43.800 at stuff podcast at iHeartRadio dot com. Stuff you Should 0:51:43.800 --> 0:51:45.399 Know is a production of iHeartRadio. 0:51:45.920 --> 0:51:49.120 For more podcasts my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 0:51:49.320 --> 0:51:52.200 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.