Cesium Atom Clock: Counting Oscillations (3D)

Oscillation Counting

Count speed 3.0×10⁸ osc/s

Microwave detuning Δf 0.0 Hz

Comparison clock drift 0 ppm

Atom zoom 1.0×

Live Readouts

Oscillations this second

0 / 9,192,631,770

Resonance lock

100%

Atomic elapsed

0.000 s

Comparison elapsed

0.000 s

Divergence since sync

0.000 s

How it works

The SI second is defined as exactly 9,192,631,770 periods of the microwave radiation that drives the hyperfine transition between the two ground-state sublevels (F=3 and F=4) of a cesium-133 atom. This scene renders that atom in a microwave cavity: its state amplitude oscillates between the two hyperfine shells (blue F=3, red F=4) in step with the driving field, and every real oscillation increments the counter. The real frequency is ~9.19 GHz — far too fast to watch — so the count speed slider compresses time so you can see the number climb toward the defining constant and watch a "tick" (one atomic second) complete.

Count speed — how many (simulated) oscillations are counted per real second; higher speed reaches 9,192,631,770 sooner, exactly like fast-forwarding the real 9.19 GHz signal.
Microwave detuning Δf — a real cesium clock only counts correctly when the microwave source sits exactly on the 9,192,631,770 Hz resonance; drift away from resonance drops the "lock" quality and slows/corrupts the counted rate, which is why real clocks continuously servo the microwave frequency to the atom's own transition.
Comparison clock drift — a mechanical/quartz clock has no absolute physical reference; it just runs at a rate that can drift by parts-per-million. Sync Both Clocks zeroes both counters so you can watch them diverge in real time — the entire reason metrology replaced pendulums and quartz with the cesium standard in 1967.

1 SI second ≡ 9,192,631,770 periods of the Cs-133
              ground-state hyperfine transition (unperturbed, at rest)

Atomic clock

00:00:00.000

Comparison clock

00:00:00.000

Divergence

+0.000 s

Oscillations toward 1 second0 / 9,192,631,770

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