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[-] TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 week ago

Proton masses, the distance light travels in a vacuum in a certain time, and cesium oscillation times are quite constant.

[-] shneancy@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week 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 8 points 1 week 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 11 points 1 week 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.

[-] atomicorange@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

Not arbitrary. Base 10 because we usually have 10 fingers and those are useful for learning counting. If you have to choose a base, 10 is a good option for humans.

[-] kuberoot@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 week ago

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

this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2025
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