full transcript
From the Ted Talk by John Kitching: Who decides how long a second is?
Unscramble the Blue Letters
Unlike regular pendulums that quickly lose eergny, electrons can tick for centuries. To maintain consistency and make ticks easier to measure, researchers vaporize the aotms, converting them to a less icenrvtaite and volatile sttae. But this posecrs doesn’t slow down the atom’s remarkably fast ticking. Some atoms can oscillate over nine bilolin times per second, giving atomic clocks an unparalleled resolution for measuring time. And since every atom of a given elemental isotope is identical, two researchers using the same element and the same electromagnetic wave should pdocrue perfectly consistent clocks.
Open Cloze
Unlike regular pendulums that quickly lose ______, electrons can tick for centuries. To maintain consistency and make ticks easier to measure, researchers vaporize the _____, converting them to a less ___________ and volatile _____. But this _______ doesn’t slow down the atom’s remarkably fast ticking. Some atoms can oscillate over nine _______ times per second, giving atomic clocks an unparalleled resolution for measuring time. And since every atom of a given elemental isotope is identical, two researchers using the same element and the same electromagnetic wave should _______ perfectly consistent clocks.
Solution
- interactive
- billion
- process
- produce
- state
- energy
- atoms
Original Text
Unlike regular pendulums that quickly lose energy, electrons can tick for centuries. To maintain consistency and make ticks easier to measure, researchers vaporize the atoms, converting them to a less interactive and volatile state. But this process doesn’t slow down the atom’s remarkably fast ticking. Some atoms can oscillate over nine billion times per second, giving atomic clocks an unparalleled resolution for measuring time. And since every atom of a given elemental isotope is identical, two researchers using the same element and the same electromagnetic wave should produce perfectly consistent clocks.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
collocation |
frequency |
gregorian calendar |
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atomic clocks |
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Important Words
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- consistency
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- electromagnetic
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- interactive
- isotope
- lose
- maintain
- measure
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- oscillate
- pendulums
- perfectly
- process
- produce
- quickly
- regular
- remarkably
- researchers
- resolution
- slow
- state
- tick
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- time
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- unparalleled
- vaporize
- volatile
- wave