[time-nuts] How does it work?

Jean-Louis Oneto Jean-Louis.Oneto at obs-azur.fr
Tue Jun 28 17:15:33 UTC 2011


Hello,
Roughly, the temperature can be seen as a measure of the brownian motion (ie 
shaking) of the atoms.
So if you keep the atoms at rest, it's equivalent to cooling them. One 
definition of the absolute zero is that there is no motion of atoms.
HTH,
Jean-Louis
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "William H. Fite" <omniryx at gmail.com>
To: "Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement" 
<time-nuts at febo.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 28, 2011 4:55 PM
Subject: [time-nuts] How does it work?


> For the sake of this poor, befuddled non-engineer, would one of you worthy
> gentlemen explain how it is that lasers striking a mass of cesium atoms 
> and
> compressing them into a ball (in a cesium fountain) has the effect of
> cooling them to near absolute zero?  That seems counter-intuitive to me, 
> but
> then I have virtually no education in this area.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Bill
> _______________________________________________
> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts at febo.com
> To unsubscribe, go to 
> https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
> and follow the instructions there. 




More information about the time-nuts mailing list