[time-nuts] How does it work?

[William H. Fite]

Thanks to all who responded.  I should have been able to figure that out for
myself...




On Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 1:15 PM, Jean-Louis Oneto <
Jean-Louis.Oneto at obs-azur.fr> wrote:

> Hello,
> Roughly, the temperature can be seen as a measure of the brownian motion
> (ie shaking) of the atoms.
> So if you keep the atoms at rest, it's equivalent to cooling them. One
> definition of the absolute zero is that there is no motion of atoms.
> HTH,
> Jean-Louis
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "William H. Fite" <omniryx at gmail.com>
> To: "Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement" <
> time-nuts at febo.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, June 28, 2011 4:55 PM
>
> Subject: [time-nuts] How does it work?
>
>
>   For the sake of this poor, befuddled non-engineer, would one of you
>> worthy
>> gentlemen explain how it is that lasers striking a mass of cesium atoms
>> and
>> compressing them into a ball (in a cesium fountain) has the effect of
>> cooling them to near absolute zero?  That seems counter-intuitive to me,
>> but
>> then I have virtually no education in this area.
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> Bill
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