How does, exactly, an atomic clock work?

Question

Please simplify as much as u can ;-)

Answer 1

An atomic clock has a small radio receiver, many times a VLF (very low frequency) radio, which receives signals from NIST transmitters located near Boulder, CO. NIST is the National Institute for Standards and Time, and it was formerly known as the National Bureau of Standards. Anyway, the receiver receives digital time signals from the NIST transmitter and updates the atomic clock.

Answer 2

An atomic clock is a device that produces electronic 'ticks' at a rate related to certain electromagnetic oscillations of atoms. Atoms produce some of the most stable periodic signals currently known. Therefore, a clock based on these oscillations can be extremely precise. One might compare an atomic clock to a grandfather clock. At the heart of a grandfather clock is a pendulum, which swings back and forth in a regular, periodic way. Every time the pendulum reaches the middle of its swing, a 'tick' is produced (by the mechanics behind the face of the clock) that moves the second hand of the clock forward by one second. The more stable the rate of swinging of the pendulum, the more precise the clock will be. In an atomic clock, the atoms are the equivalent of the pendulum. The clock is designed so that every time the oscillating components of the atoms reaches a certain point in their periodic motion, an electronic 'tick' is generated, which can be used to run an electronic timer or counter.

The chip-scale atomic clocks being made at NIST are stable to better than one part in ten billion when timing events over one second. This is equivalent to neither gaining nor loosing one second over 300 years. By comparison quartz crystal oscillators, often found in wristwatches, are stable to about 1 second over a few days. High-performance laboratory atomic clocks are stable to one second over 100 million years.

Answer 3

There are many ways of building atomic clocks, but the most common type uses Caesium-133.

This type has 4 main components: a master oscillator/amplifier, a resonant cavity containing ceasium vapor, a signal detector, and an electronic counting device.

Caesium atoms absorb microwave energy at a frequency of exactly 9,192,631,770 cycles per second. If the master oscillator is tuned to produce an alternating current that is very near this frequency, the ceasium in the cavity will begin to absorb this current, producing a loss of signal that is measurable by the detector.

Once the oscillator has been tuned to the correct frequency, the counter can then measure the number of alternations in current.
This counter resembles a car odometer in principle. The counter will tick off one second after measuring every 9,192,631,770 oscillations.

all atomic clock are based on the fact that atoms of a single chemical element, will absorb or emit radiation at very specific frequencies.

Hope that makes sense.....
~Donkey Hotei

Answer 4

An atomic clock as opposed to a clock that synchronizes to an atomic clock, operates on the principle of the vibration of an element, the international agreed upon standard is the cesium-133 atom.

At the heart of every atomic clock is a specific element which has a known period of vibration, which is thousands of times a second, the clock counts the vibrations and records the passing of time. Atomic clocks are more accurate that the natural rotation (DAY) and orbit (YEAR) of the Earth. That's a very basic explanation of how it works.

All clocks work on the principal of oscillation, the atomic clock is based on the oscillation of a particular atom rather than a mechanical (pendulum or gear) or electrical device (crystal).

Answer 5

Here ya go...
http://science.howstuffworks.com/atomic-clock.htm

Answer 6

This should help: