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RE: Defining time with atomic fountains
Cool post, now I have an idea how a atomic clock works.
One question: What do you mean by saying that the rotation of the earth isn't stable. Is the speed really not constant? Even unpredictably inconstant?
Earth slows done. Days are getting longer by 1-2 milliseconds every thousands of years. Moreover, Earth rotation also depends on the position of Earth relatively to the sun. Those are small effects, but important for precision.
Exactly the question I wanted to ask. Because the reason why we are not feeling the impact of the rotation of the earth is because it is doing so at a constant velocity. So, the velocity is not so constant afterall, just that its variableness is very small. But what happens when the earth stops rotating or when its rotating speed is no longer constant?
The rotation speed is not constant, but the non-uniformity are so small so that it won't change anything for us.
Earth may also stop rotating at some point, but this is not even clear. I mean, there are so many effects involved there (tides) and they may change over time. I really think we are fight for the next hundreds of billions of years. Note that I have no source on this under the hand... The calculations should however exist somewhere (no time to google that for now, sorry).
No problems... thank you sir for the time taken to explain this
You are very welcome!