Time: From Earth Rotation to Atomic Physics
Cambridge University Press
Edition: 2, 10/18/2018
EAN 9781107197282, ISBN10: 1107197287
Hardcover, 400 pages, 25.4 x 17.8 x 2.3 cm
Language: English
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.
Preface
1. Time
pre-twentieth century
2. Solar time
3. Ephemerides
4. Variable Earth rotation
5. Earth orientation
6. Ephemeris time
7. Relativity and time
8. Time and cosmology
9. Dynamical and coordinate time scales
10. Clock developments
11. Microwave atomic clocks
12. Optical atomic standards
13. Definition and role of a second
14. International Atomic Time (TAI)
15. Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)
16. Time in the solar system
17. Time and frequency transfer
18. Modern Earth orientation
19. International activities
20. Time applications
21. Future of time keeping
Acronyms
Glossary.