History of Time Part 5: UTC, The Last Iteration
The fifth and final edition of the History of Time series begins a mere decade after the International Meridian Conference. Little did they know at the time, but the contributions of Henri Becquerel, Marie and Pierre Curie, and Ernest Rutherford to the discovery of radioactivity would set the stage for the final standardization of our modern timekeeping system — Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
The Interlude to UTC
As with any human advancement, however, this final standardization arrived as an accumulation of several smaller iterations. The first iteration was the wider adoption of the Greenwich Meridian by less developed and, in several cases, newly independent nations as a result of the early 20th Century’s dynamic geopolitics.
In 1928, the International Astronomical Union introduced “Universal Time” referring to the timescale where 12 midnight signaled the start of the day, as Greenwich Meridian Time (GMT) could’ve referred to astronomical or nautical GMT, both of which began their 24 hour timescales at 12 noon.
The Atomic Clock
Universal Time’s adoption would continue in the shadow of another significant technology, radio, whose frequencies were set based on Universal Time. 1955 brought another significant iteration in the cesium atomic clock.
The clock worked by first sending cesium particles through a spinning magnet. Those particles whose orientations matched that of the magnet then passed through another magnet at the opposite end. They would then be collected and sent through a quartz oscillator at a constant frequency of 10,000,000 Hz. The consistency of this cycle surpassed any previous timekeeping method — accurate to five one hundred thousand billionths of a second.
The Arrival of UTC
1958 saw the connection of the newfound atomic second to that of the Ephemeris second, a standardized time unit that calibrated the mathematical laws of physics such they would accurately reflect observed celestial body positions. Finally, in 1960, the US Naval Observatory, Royal Greenwich Observatory, and UK National Physics Laboratory coordinated time across their radio frequencies such that any discrepancies could be addressed quickly, ushering in UTC as the global timekeeping standard.
Coordinating UTC and TAI
There would be one more iteration, however. With wider adoption of atomic clocks came that of International Atomic Time (TAI), the weighted average of all the world’s atomic clocks. This measurement, as I’m sure you can predict, differed microscopically from UTC. In 1972, these discrepancies between the TAI and UTC scales resulted in the leap second.
Contextualizing the History of Time
At this point, like you, I’m overwhelmed by this menagerie of numbers and scales. Though it’s an enjoyable exercise descending into convoluted topics such as the history of time, at some point this supreme volume of information requires contextualization.
The prelude to this series elaborated on the challenges of measuring time distortion, concluding by postulating several related hypotheticals. In the five weeks following that piece, we’ve flown through every recorded era since the start of our universe to find only in the last 50 years have we agreed upon consistent time governance, and even now there are discrepancies requiring constant adjustment.
Ancient Greece, Rome, Elizabethan Britain, the Ottoman Empire, the Renaissance, the formation of the United States, World Wars I and II. All of these cataclysmic events and more occurred independently of the UTC scale. Now take it a step further. Think of how many individuals embarked on their journeys of being more independent of individual timepieces, let alone UTC? It’s an immeasurable number, though somebody, perhaps I, will attempt to quantify it.
The takeaway is, time is a largely arbitrary number that necessitates awareness, but not obsession. Why then is modern world saturated with topics such as productivity, retirement, returns, and shortened work weeks? Simple — because we collectively believe there won’t be enough time to make meaning out of life. I leave you with the following thought:
The objective of our existence is to not maximize the time we have, but to live in such a way that time is irrelevant.
Be More.
Become Polymathic.
Quote of the Week: “We’re born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we’re not alone.” — Orson Welles
