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" <[email protected]>
To: "Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement"
<[email protected]>
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 -- [email protected]
To unsubscribe, go to
https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
and follow the instructions there.
_______________________________________________
time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected]
To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
and follow the instructions there.
