Time standards are now based on atomic clocks. A promising second standard is ba

Question

Time standards are now based on atomic clocks. A promising second standard is based on pulsars, which are rotating neutron stars (highly compact stars consisting only of neutrons). Some rotate at a rate that is highly stable, sending out a radio beacon that sweeps briefly across Earth once with each rotation, like a light-house beacon. Pulsar PSR 1937 + 21 is an example, it rotates once every 1.55780644887275 ± 3 ms, where the trailing ±3 indicates the uncertainty in the last decimal place (it does not mean ±3 ms). How much time does the pulsar take to rotate 1.0×108 times? (s)

Explanation / Answer

Given this, (a.) (24hr/1 day) * (60min/1hr) * (60s/1min) * (1000ms/1s) = 86,400,000 ms/day Divide that number by 1.557806... to get the number of rotations in one day. (b.)Multiply 1.557806... by 10^6. Answer is 1.55781 x 10^6. (c.) Uncertainty of one rotation: 3 x 10^-14 ms Multiply (1.0 x 10^6) by (3 x 10^-14 ms). = 3.33333333 × 1019

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