Interesting Tip-Off Time

[Adam]

Originally Posted by BadNewsRef

Yeah, there aren't any hills in Nebraska.

There are a few, but they're right near the Colorado and Wyoming borders; and they still managed to make a straight road all the way across without hitting any hills.

[Mark Padgett]

Originally Posted by BadNewsRef

Yeah, there aren't any hills in Nebraska.

Huh? According to whitepages.com, there's tons of them. Not as many as in California, of course.

[26 Year Gap]

Originally Posted by mbyron

Did you know that seconds are the only common unit between the metric and English systems?

Now, wait a minute.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by mbyron

Did you know that seconds are the only common unit between the metric and English systems?

As are minutes, hours, days, and years. Maybe amperes?

[LDUB]

Originally Posted by Hugh Refner

BTW - the TV show "Leverage" last night was about a gym in Nebraska. It made the state seem like it was populated by a bunch of hillbillies stuck in the 1800s.

I too was surprised at how accurately they were able to depict life in Nebraska.

[Mark Padgett]

Although cultures have used hours to denote the passage of time for hundreds of years, the "second" is considered to be a metric unit. I once asked one of my college professors why. He said because the International Bureau of Weights and Measures says so.

Of course, that organization is located in France.

[mbyron]

Originally Posted by Mark Padgett

Although cultures have used hours to denote the passage of time for hundreds of years, the "second" is considered to be a metric unit.

It is also an English unit (foot-pound-second).

And the French don't define it, nature does. The second is the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the cesium 133 atom.

[dsqrddgd909]

Mbyron, Are you in the quality or metrology fields?

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by mbyron

... The second is the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the cesium 133 atom.

If that is the measurement of a second how could it have been scientifically defined prior to the 20th Century?

And why is that the measurement?

[mbyron]

Originally Posted by BadNewsRef

If that is the measurement of a second how could it have been scientifically defined prior to the 20th Century?

And why is that the measurement?

1. Prior to the development of chronometers capable of measuring microseconds, the sidereal second was sufficiently precise.

2. It matches a sidereal second pretty closely. If you're asking why cesium 133, I don't know the answer to that one. Sorry!

[Adam]

Originally Posted by mbyron

1. Prior to the development of chronometers capable of measuring microseconds, the sidereal second was sufficiently precise.

2. It matches a sidereal second pretty closely. If you're asking why cesium 133, I don't know the answer to that one. Sorry!

2 is easy. cesium 132 wasn't quite long enough, and cesium 134 was too long.

[Smitty]

Originally Posted by Snaqwells

2 is easy. cesium 132 wasn't quite long enough, and cesium 134 was too long.

Finally something that makes sense in this silly thread.

[26 Year Gap]

Originally Posted by mbyron

It is also an English unit (foot-pound-second).

And the French don't define it, nature does. The second is the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the cesium 133 atom.

Is that your standard response to coaches clamoring for a '3 second call'?

[mbyron]

Originally Posted by 26 Year Gap

Is that your standard response to coaches clamoring for a '3 second call'?

Yeah: "not enough Cs 133 periods, coach."

[Mark Padgett]

Originally Posted by 26 Year Gap

Is that your standard response to coaches clamoring for a '3 second call'?

My standard response is, "Coach, that wasn't three seconds even in dog years."

BTW - are dog years metric? I hope not. WOOF.