• TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works
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    1 day ago

    Proton masses, the distance light travels in a vacuum in a certain time, and cesium oscillation times are quite constant.

    • shneancy@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      proton masses are rather small - inconvenient

      the distance light travels at a certain time - then it’ll just be based on our artificial units of time

      cesium oscillation i don’t know much about but from what i quickly read it’s also about keeping time, 1s to be precise, which is still an arbitrary unit

      • TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works
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        1 day ago

        Time can be non arbitrarily defined as a round number value of times cesium oscillates between two hyperfine states, to allow time to be non arbitrary and still a useful size.

        • Zorcron@lemmy.zip
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          1 day ago

          The round number would still be arbitrary, no? It’s roundness would be based on the base 10 counting system, which is also arbitrary.

          • atomicorange@lemmy.world
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            24 hours ago

            Not arbitrary. Base 10 because we usually have 10 fingers and those are useful for learning counting. If you have to choose a base, 10 is a good option for humans.

        • KubeRoot@discuss.tchncs.de
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          24 hours ago

          That’s still an arbitrary number to pick, and the choice of cesium oscillation seems pretty arbitrary in the grand scheme of things.