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  3. Time: From Earth Rotation to Atomic Physics
  • Cited by 19
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
October 2018
Print publication year:
2018
Online ISBN:
9781108178365
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108178365
Subjects:
Observational Astronomy, Techniques and Instrumentation, Physics and Astronomy
Information

Book description

In the twenty-first century, we take the means to measure time for granted, without contemplating the sophisticated concepts on which our time scales are based. This volume presents the evolution of concepts of time and methods of time keeping up to the present day. It outlines the progression of time based on sundials, water clocks, and the Earth's rotation, to time measurement using pendulum clocks, quartz crystal clocks, and atomic frequency standards. Time scales created as a result of these improvements in technology and the development of general and special relativity are explained. This second edition has been updated throughout to describe twentieth- and twenty-first-century advances and discusses the redefinition of SI units and the future of UTC. A new chapter on time and cosmology has been added. This broad-ranging reference benefits a diverse readership, including historians, scientists, engineers, educators, and it is accessible to general readers.

Reviews

'Why do we add 1 second to our clocks at midnight at the end of some years, or at the end of June in others? Why don’t we subtract 1 second sometimes instead? … You will find the answers to these and many more questions in this excellent book, written by two experts who worked on the practical aspects of these topics at the US Naval Observatory … The second edition brings these subjects right up to date, and investigates the possible future developments in timekeeping.'

L. V. Morrison Source: The Observatory

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