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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Keeping Perfect Time With Caged Atoms
AU - Porfyrakis, K
AU - Laird, E A
N1 - ©2017 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.
PY - 2017/12
Y1 - 2017/12
N2 - For Fridtjof Nansen, 13 April 1895 started well. Six days earlier, the Norwegian explorer had set a new record for the closest approach to the North Pole, and now he was moving quickly over unbroken sea ice toward Cape Fligely and home. But then came a sickening realization: In his eagerness to break camp, he had forgotten to wind the chronometers. He had lost track of precise time, and thus the ability to track his longitude. Although Nansen couldn't have lost his position by more than a few minutes, it forced him to take a circuitously conservative route to avoid being swept into the North Atlantic. His expedition thus had to endure a hungry winter, camped on an unknown shore. Not until June the following year did he encounter other explorers and learn his true position-on Cape Felder, in Franz Josef Land.
AB - For Fridtjof Nansen, 13 April 1895 started well. Six days earlier, the Norwegian explorer had set a new record for the closest approach to the North Pole, and now he was moving quickly over unbroken sea ice toward Cape Fligely and home. But then came a sickening realization: In his eagerness to break camp, he had forgotten to wind the chronometers. He had lost track of precise time, and thus the ability to track his longitude. Although Nansen couldn't have lost his position by more than a few minutes, it forced him to take a circuitously conservative route to avoid being swept into the North Atlantic. His expedition thus had to endure a hungry winter, camped on an unknown shore. Not until June the following year did he encounter other explorers and learn his true position-on Cape Felder, in Franz Josef Land.
KW - Atomic clocks
KW - Oscillators
KW - Nitrogen
KW - Resonant frequency
KW - Atomic beams
U2 - 10.1109/MSPEC.2017.8118481
DO - 10.1109/MSPEC.2017.8118481
M3 - Journal article
VL - 54
SP - 34
JO - IEEE Spectrum
JF - IEEE Spectrum
ER -