From Sundials to Atomic Clocks: Understanding Time and Frequency, Second Revised Edition
It's present everywhere but occupies no space. We can spend it, but we can't destroy it or even change it, and there's never any more or less of it. Everyone knows what it is and uses it every day, but no one has been able to define it.
It's time, of course, an elusive concept that has helped unravel some of nature's greatest mysteries, yet remains a mystery itself. This volume, newly revised and updated, offers an unusually clear and accessible introduction to time — its measurement, historic methods of timekeeping, the uses of time information, and the role of time in science and technology. Beginning with a discussion of the nature of time, natural clocks, the relation of time and frequency, and the role of time in navigation, the authors then proceed to a fascinating treatment of man-made clocks and watches — from the sundials and waterclocks of ancient Egypt to today's amazingly precise atomic clocks — accurate to within one second every 370,000 years!
Subsequent chapters offer detailed, yet accessible explanations of the continuing search for more uniform time; the application of time to energy, communication, and transportation; and the role of the world's official timekeepers. Finally, the authors look at time in the context of theoretical science and technology, showing how time has long been a crucial element in theories of the fundamental laws of nature and in astronomy, while improvements in the measurement of time have fostered major developments in the realm of physics. More than 300 drawings and cartoons enliven the pages of this fascinating, coherent, and comprehensive treatment of the age-old enigma of time.
1128928460
From Sundials to Atomic Clocks: Understanding Time and Frequency, Second Revised Edition
It's present everywhere but occupies no space. We can spend it, but we can't destroy it or even change it, and there's never any more or less of it. Everyone knows what it is and uses it every day, but no one has been able to define it.
It's time, of course, an elusive concept that has helped unravel some of nature's greatest mysteries, yet remains a mystery itself. This volume, newly revised and updated, offers an unusually clear and accessible introduction to time — its measurement, historic methods of timekeeping, the uses of time information, and the role of time in science and technology. Beginning with a discussion of the nature of time, natural clocks, the relation of time and frequency, and the role of time in navigation, the authors then proceed to a fascinating treatment of man-made clocks and watches — from the sundials and waterclocks of ancient Egypt to today's amazingly precise atomic clocks — accurate to within one second every 370,000 years!
Subsequent chapters offer detailed, yet accessible explanations of the continuing search for more uniform time; the application of time to energy, communication, and transportation; and the role of the world's official timekeepers. Finally, the authors look at time in the context of theoretical science and technology, showing how time has long been a crucial element in theories of the fundamental laws of nature and in astronomy, while improvements in the measurement of time have fostered major developments in the realm of physics. More than 300 drawings and cartoons enliven the pages of this fascinating, coherent, and comprehensive treatment of the age-old enigma of time.
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From Sundials to Atomic Clocks: Understanding Time and Frequency, Second Revised Edition

From Sundials to Atomic Clocks: Understanding Time and Frequency, Second Revised Edition

From Sundials to Atomic Clocks: Understanding Time and Frequency, Second Revised Edition

From Sundials to Atomic Clocks: Understanding Time and Frequency, Second Revised Edition

Paperback(Second Edition, Revised)

$17.95 
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Overview

It's present everywhere but occupies no space. We can spend it, but we can't destroy it or even change it, and there's never any more or less of it. Everyone knows what it is and uses it every day, but no one has been able to define it.
It's time, of course, an elusive concept that has helped unravel some of nature's greatest mysteries, yet remains a mystery itself. This volume, newly revised and updated, offers an unusually clear and accessible introduction to time — its measurement, historic methods of timekeeping, the uses of time information, and the role of time in science and technology. Beginning with a discussion of the nature of time, natural clocks, the relation of time and frequency, and the role of time in navigation, the authors then proceed to a fascinating treatment of man-made clocks and watches — from the sundials and waterclocks of ancient Egypt to today's amazingly precise atomic clocks — accurate to within one second every 370,000 years!
Subsequent chapters offer detailed, yet accessible explanations of the continuing search for more uniform time; the application of time to energy, communication, and transportation; and the role of the world's official timekeepers. Finally, the authors look at time in the context of theoretical science and technology, showing how time has long been a crucial element in theories of the fundamental laws of nature and in astronomy, while improvements in the measurement of time have fostered major developments in the realm of physics. More than 300 drawings and cartoons enliven the pages of this fascinating, coherent, and comprehensive treatment of the age-old enigma of time.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780486409139
Publisher: Dover Publications
Publication date: 12/08/2011
Edition description: Second Edition, Revised
Pages: 320
Product dimensions: 6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

I. THE RIDDLE OF TIME
1. The Riddle of Time
The Nature of Time
What is Time?
"Date, Time Interval, and Synchronization"
Ancient Clock Watchers
Clocks in Nature
Keeping Track of the Sun and Moon
Thinking Big and Thinking Small-An Aside on Numbers
2. Everything Swings
Getting Time from Frequency
What Is a Clock?
The Earth-Sun Clock
Meter Sticks to Measure Time
What Is a Standard?
How Time Tells Us Where in the World We Are
Building a Clock that Wouldn't Get Seasick
II. HAND-BUILT CLOCKS AND WATCHES
3. Early Clocks
Sand and Water Clocks
Mechanical Clocks
The Pendulum Clock
The Balance-Wheel Clock
Further Refinements
The Search for Even Better Clocks
4. "Q" Is for Quality"
The Resonance Curve
Energy Build-up and the Resonance Curve-An Aside on Q
The Resonance Curve and the Decay Time
"Accuracy, Stability, and Q"
High Q and Accuracy
High Q and Stability
Waiting to Find the Time
Pushing Q to the Limit
5. Building Even Better Clocks
The Quartz Clock
Atomic Clocks
The Ammonia Resonator
The Cesium Resonator
One Second in 10 000 000 Years
Atomic Definition of the Second
The Rubidium Resonator
The Hydrogen Maser
Can We Always Build a Better Clock?
6. A Short History of the Atom
Thermodynanics and the Industrial Revolution
Count Rumford's Cannon
Saturn's Rings and the Atom
Bringing Atoms to a Halt
Atoms Collide
7. Cooling the Atom
Pure Light
Shooting at Atoms
Optical Molasses
Trapping Atoms
Penning Traps
Paul Traps
Real Cool Clocks
Capturing Neutral Atoms
Atomic Fountains
Quantum Mechanics and the Single Atom
8. The Time for Everybody
The First Watches
Modern Mechanical Watches
Electric and Electronic Watches
The Quartz-Crystal Watch
"How Much Does "The Time" Cost?"
III. FINDING AND KEEPING THE TIME
9. Time Scales
The Calendar
The Solar Day
The Stellar or Sidereal Day
Earth Rotation
The Continuing Search for More Uniform Time: Ephemeris Time
How Long Is a Second?
"Rubber" Seconds"
The New UTC System and the Leap Second
The Length of the Year
The Keepers of Time
World Time Scales
Bureau International de Poids et Mesures
10. The Clock behind the Clock
Flying Clocks
Time on a Radio Beam
Time in the Sky
Accuracy
Coverage
Reliability
Other Considerations
Other Radio Schemes
11. The Time Signal on Its Way
Choosing a Frequency
Very low Frequencies
Low Frequencies
Medium Frequencies
High Frequencies
Very High Frequencies
Frequencies above 300 megahertz
Noise-Additive and Multiplicative
Three Kinds of Time Signals
IV. THE USES OF TIME
12. Standard Time
Standard Time Zones and Daylight-Saving Time
Time as a Standard
Is a Second Really a Second?
Who Cares about the Time?
13. "Time, The Great Organizer"
Electric Power
Transportation
Navigation by Radio Beacons
Navigation by Satellite
The Global Positioning System
Some Common and Some Far-out Uses of Time and Frequency Technology
14. Ticks and Bits
Divide and Conquer
"Sending Messages the Old Fashioned Way, One Bit at a Time"
Automated Telegraphy
Frequency Division Multiplexing
Simultaneous Time and Frequency Multiplexing
Don't Put All Your Messages in one Basket
Keeping the Clocks in Step
V. "TIME, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY"
15. Time and Mathematics
A New Direction
Taking Apart and Putting Together
Slicing up the Past and the Future-Calculus
Conditions and Rules
Getting at the Truth with Differential Calculus
Newton's Law of Gravitation
What's Inside the Differentiating Machine?-An Aside
16. Time and Physics
Time is Relative
Time Has Direction
Time Measurement Is Limited
Atomic and Gravitational Clocks
The Struggle to Preserve Symmetry
The Direction of Time and Time Symmetries-An Aside
17. Time and Astronomy
Measuring the Age of the Universe
The Expanding Universe-Time Equals Distance
Big Bang or Steady State?
Stellar Clocks
White Dwarfs
Neutron Stars
Black Holes-Time Comes to a Stop
"Time, Distance, and Radio Stars "
18. Until the End of Time
Paradoxes
Time Is Not Absolute
General Theory of Relativity
A Bang or a Whimper?
19. "Time's Direction, Free Will, and All That"
Time's Direction and Information
Disorganization and Information?
&nbs
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