Scientists take an atomic clock on the road and use it to measure the height of a mountain

A new, portable atomic clock was able to use gravity to take a measurement of the height of a mountain in the French Alps. The key was to determine what trade-offs would allow the clocks to leave the lab without losing too much accuracy “What we did is take something state-of-the-art and make it transportable,” Lisdat said. “It’s not easy.” Ultimately, the team was able to break the optical lattice clock into pieces that would fit in a temperature-stabilized, vibration-dampened car trailer big enough to hold two horses. “Sometimes you just have to begin, and then you can figure out how to improve.” Ultimately, as the accuracy of the portable clock continues to get better, time could be used to resolve height differences of just 1 centimeter, the study authors said. “You can build an accurate clock in the lab, but what you would really like to do is take it to a bunch of different places,” he said.