• shneancy@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    proton masses are rather small - inconvenient

    the distance light travels at a certain time - then it’ll just be based on our artificial units of time

    cesium oscillation i don’t know much about but from what i quickly read it’s also about keeping time, 1s to be precise, which is still an arbitrary unit

    • TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      Time can be non arbitrarily defined as a round number value of times cesium oscillates between two hyperfine states, to allow time to be non arbitrary and still a useful size.

      • Zorcron@lemmy.zip
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        3 months ago

        The round number would still be arbitrary, no? It’s roundness would be based on the base 10 counting system, which is also arbitrary.

      • KubeRoot@discuss.tchncs.de
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        3 months ago

        That’s still an arbitrary number to pick, and the choice of cesium oscillation seems pretty arbitrary in the grand scheme of things.