Heroes of Time

  |   By

Chronology – the study of time- has provided science and technology with some incredible innovations and possibilities. From atomic clocks, NTP servers and the GPS system, true and accurate chronology has changed the shape of the world.

Time and the way it is counted has been a preoccupation of mankind since the earliest civilisations. Early chronologists spent their time trying to establish calendars but this proves to be more complicated than first imagined primarily because the earth takes a quarter of a day more than 365 days to orbit the sun.

Establishing the right number of leap days was one of the first challenges and it took several attempts at calendars until the modern Gregorian calendar became adopted by the globe.

When it came to monitoring time at a smaller level great advances were made by Galileo Galilei who would have built the first pendulum clock if only his death hadn’t interrupted his plans. Pendulums were finally invented by Christiaan Huygens and provided the first true glimpse of accurately monitoring the time throughout the day.

The next steps in chronology couldn’t take place though until we had a better understanding of time itself. Newton (Sir Isaac) had the first ideas and had the notion time was absolute” and would flow “equably” for all observers. This would have been an obvious idea to Newton as many of us regard time as unchanging but it was Einstein in his special theory of relativity that proposed that in fact time wasn’t a constant and would differ to all observers.

It was Einstein’s ideas that proved correct and his model of time and space paved the way for many of the modern technologies we take for granted today such as the atomic clock.

However, chronology doesn’t stop there, timekeepers are constantly looking for ways of increasing accuracy with modern atomic clocks so precise they would not lose a second in millions of years.

There are other notable figures in the modern world of chronology too. Professor David Mills from the University of Delaware devised a protocol in the 1980’s to synchronise computer networks.

His Network Time Protocol (NTP) is now used in computer systems and networks all over the world via NTP time servers. A NTP server ensures computers on opposite sides of the globe can run exactly the same time.

The Concept of Time

  |   By

Time is something that we are all familiar with, it governs our lives even more so than money and we are constantly ‘at war’ with time as we battle to conduct our daily tasks before it runs out.

Yet when we start to examine time we discover that the concept of time we begin to realise that a non-ending linear distance between different events that we call time is purely a human invention.

Of course time exists but it certainly doesn’t follow the rules that the human concept of time does. It is not never ending or constant and changes and warps depending on speed of observers and the pull of gravity. In fact it was Einstein’s theories on relativity that gave human kind its first glimpse as to what time really is and how it affects our daily lives.

Einstein described a four-dimensional space-time, where time and space are inextricably woven together. This space-time gets warped and bent by gravity slowing time (or our perception of it). Einstein also, he suggested that the speed of light was the only constant in the universe and time altered depending on the relative speed to it.

When it comes to keeping track of time, Einstein’s theories can hamper any attempts at chronology. If both gravity and relative speed can affect time then it becomes difficult to measure time accurately.

We long ago abandoned the idea of using the celestial bodies and Earth’s rotation as a reference for our timekeeping as it was recognised in the early twentieth century that Earth’s rotation wasn’t at all accurate or reliable. Instead, we have depended n the oscillations of atoms to keep track of time. Atomic clocks measure atomic ticks of particular atoms and our concept of time is based on these ticks with every second being equal to over 9 billion oscillation of the caesium atom.

Even though we now base time on atomic oscillations, technologies such as GPS satellites (Global Positioning System) still have to counter the effects of lower gravity. In fact the effects of time can be monitored so accurately thanks to atomic clocks that those at different altitudes above sea level run at slightly differing speeds which has to be compensated for.

Atomic clocks can also be used to synchronise a computer network ensuring that they are running as accurately as possible. Most NTP time servers operate by utilising and distributing the time signal broadcast by an atomic clock (either through GPS or long wave) using the protocol NTP (Network Time Protocol).