Thanks to all who responded. I should have been able to figure that out for myself...
On Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 1:15 PM, Jean-Louis Oneto < [email protected]> wrote: > 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<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<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.
