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

  1. interactive
  2. billion
  3. process
  4. produce
  5. state
  6. energy
  7. 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 2
atomic clocks 2

Important Words

  1. atom
  2. atomic
  3. atoms
  4. billion
  5. centuries
  6. clocks
  7. consistency
  8. consistent
  9. converting
  10. easier
  11. electromagnetic
  12. electrons
  13. element
  14. elemental
  15. energy
  16. fast
  17. giving
  18. identical
  19. interactive
  20. isotope
  21. lose
  22. maintain
  23. measure
  24. measuring
  25. oscillate
  26. pendulums
  27. perfectly
  28. process
  29. produce
  30. quickly
  31. regular
  32. remarkably
  33. researchers
  34. resolution
  35. slow
  36. state
  37. tick
  38. ticking
  39. ticks
  40. time
  41. times
  42. unparalleled
  43. vaporize
  44. volatile
  45. wave