For Students
The cesium clock is the most accurate type of clock yet developed. This device makes use of transitions between the spin states of the cesium nucleus and produces a frequency which is so regular that it has been adopted for establishing the time standard. Like electrons, many atomic nuclei have spin. The spin of these nuclei produces a set of small effects in the spectra, known as hyperfine structure. (The effects are small because, though the angular momentum of a spinning nucleus is of the same magnitude as that of an electron, its magnetic moment, which governs the energies of ...(100 of 12931 words)