The researchers of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) they consider that the time has come, if weather it is about looking for a new definition of the second since more precise measurements will allow a more precise understanding of the universeit will be possible to avoid catastrophes and add accuracy in technological applications.
this body, located in Sevresparisian suburb, on the shore left of the Seine, created by the Convention of the Meteris in charge of establishing the standards in the measurement unit systems worldwide.
The Weights and Measures Committeeexecutive arm of BIPM, is made up of eighteen scientists from different countries, Argentina among them. They met there in June of this year to begin the guidelines for this great advance.
Changes, everything changes? A patient must wait 20 seconds to put on the headphones in an MRI, and on a trip to the civil registry a girlfriend tells her that she will arrive in 10 minutes. Before the change of the unit of time, when will the patient start the study and what will be the 600 seconds until the marriage takes place?
NEWS talked to scientists Members of the Weights and Measures Committee about the meaning of the redefinition of the second, the consequences that it would bring in everyday life and the most relevant: what is the purpose of doing it.
“In everyday life nothing changes, a second will have the same duration as it has today and the same watches that are used in normal activities will continue to be used. What it will affect is scientific research and high-tech industry, such as technology or satellite systems. That is where changes and technological improvements will appear, but over time these advances come to be seen as new technological applications in everyday life”, explains the Argentine scientist Héctor Laiz, manager INTI Metrology and Qualitysole representative of South America in the International Committee.
The researcher assures that whenever the definition of a unit is changed, it is sought that there is no discontinuity. The second will continue to last exactly the same time intervalotherwise it would be a very serious practical problem. “What is going to be done with the new definition is to measure it, determine its duration with much greater accuracy,” he adds.
NEW KNOWLEDGE. As more is known about the universe and its laws, it is discovered that what was previously valid to measure and control certain phenomena is no longer valid. After all, the dynamism of nature requires a living and attentive science. The question is, then, what would a new parameter of the unit of time give us in terms of the universe?
“The fact of being able to measure time more accurately thanks to the future new definition will allow us to delve into the search for the answer to one of the most basic questions in physics: the laws of nature as we know them today, Are they invariable throughout the history of the universe or do they have temporary variations? If these temporal variations existed, it would be essential to know them in order to make cosmological predictions”, he tells NEWS, from Madrid, Dr. María Dolores del Campo Maldonadodirector of the Division of Mechanical Quantities and Engineering of the Spanish Metrology Center, one of the two scientists of the International Committee for Weights and Measures.
The most accurate measurement of time helps determine the space-time distortion produced by Earth’s gravity. “This also has applications in hydrology, seismology, geodesy,” explains the Spanish researcher.
For the Argentine scientist, it will not change the way we understand the universe, but it will allow experiments or measurements to corroborate scientific theories.
Nowadays, the office or Bureau of Weights and Measures regulates globally the units of time, length, mass, electric current, temperature, light intensity and the amount of a substance. Scientists update these standards constantly. In 2018, they approved new definitions for the kilogram (mass), the ampere (current), the kelvin (temperature) and the mole (amount of substance). Now, except for the mole, all measurements are subordinate to one: time.
by Adriana Vanoli
