Study Suggests a Clock’s Accuracy May be Directly Proportional to the Entropy it Creates

Accuracy of Clock and Entrophy connection studied by researchers…learn more…

Thursday, 29th April 2021

A new study states that the precise rhythm that is followed by clocks to keep time comes at a considerable cost, entropy.

Each tick that is generated by a clock creates entropy, or disorder, which has been calculated by scientists. According to their experiments, clocks running at different levels of accuracy generate entropy at varying levels and it has been inferred that the more accurate a clock is in its timekeeping, the more entropy it emits.

Physicist Natalia Ares of the University of Oxford said, “If you want a better clock, you have to pay for it.”

The concepts of time and entropy are in fact interlaced.

Entropy is also alluded to as the “arrow of time,” because with the passage of time the tendency of entropy increases.

The Universe seems to consistently move from lower entropy to higher entropy (SN: 7/10/15).

This continuous forward motion towards increasing entropy goes on to expound the fact as to why certain processes can proceed forward in time but not in reverse. For instance, one can easily mix the cream into coffee but is hardly able to separate it again.

In machines also, one can see an increasing level of disorder as they operate. For example, the heat generated by mechanical devices when they work fosters the entropy of their surroundings. This essentially entails that even a regular, battery-powered clock produces entropy as it ticks.

In order to measure the amount of entropy that is released in this ticking of a general clock, scientists conducted an experiment where they made a clock from a thin membrane, tens of nanometers thick and 1.5 millimeters long, suspended across two posts.

They then sent out an electrical signal into the clock to jostle the membrane, causing it to flex up and down in a bending motion. This was repeated at regular intervals mirroring the ticks of a clock, all the while registering the motion with the help of an antenna.

The accuracy in the ticking of the clock was directly proportional to the power of the electrical signal- as the clock’s accuracy increased, so did the entropy.

While some scientists, those not involved with the study have raised doubts about the accuracy of the findings especially when applied to other types of clocks, others believe that the relationship may be universal.

The News Talkie Bureau

Source:

Science news