7 points | by wjSgoWPm5bWAhXB a day ago ago
3 comments
"Boil it down and this means the quantum clock loses only one second every 30 billion years, which, for navigation purposes, means a drift of a mere 1 x 10⁻⁶ degrees per hour. "
What does this mean in terms of metres off a desired position?
A nautical mile is 1852 meters
1 degree of latitude is 60 nautical miles
1 millionth of a degree is 0.1 meters
So they lose about 2.4 meters of accuracy per day or about 0.9km per year. Which is pretty good for nautical navigation purposes.
But for that to be useful you also need to measure the angle between the sun and gravity accurate to a millionth of a degree...
Is such a thing possible?
"Boil it down and this means the quantum clock loses only one second every 30 billion years, which, for navigation purposes, means a drift of a mere 1 x 10⁻⁶ degrees per hour. "
What does this mean in terms of metres off a desired position?
A nautical mile is 1852 meters
1 degree of latitude is 60 nautical miles
1 millionth of a degree is 0.1 meters
So they lose about 2.4 meters of accuracy per day or about 0.9km per year. Which is pretty good for nautical navigation purposes.
But for that to be useful you also need to measure the angle between the sun and gravity accurate to a millionth of a degree...
Is such a thing possible?