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Cesium clock

An atomic clock in which the characteristic frequency of 9 192 631 770 cycles per second of the cesium atom is used to determine the basic time interval for the clock. Because the second is defined by international agreement as the length of time needed for this number of cycles to occur, time intervals given by a cesium clock operating under the conditions specified by the definition have zero error. A cesium clock is therefore used whenever the highest possible accuracy over long intervals is needed. However, over short intervals, the frequency may vary appreciably and clocks with better stability over short intervals may be used to give time over such intervals. Cesium clocks are then used to monitor the time over longer intervals.

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