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| Fastest Timer |
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| raptor1956:
What's the fastest events that can be timed, or, more precisely, what's the fastest timers capable of measuring these fast events? For example, if I wanted to measure the speed of light more directly by sending a beam to a mirror some distance away then bouncing it back the round trip time if the mirror was 100m away would be about 667ns, but to provide 3 digits precision you need a timing system capable of about 1e-10 seconds. To get 6 digits you'd need a timer with a resolution of about 1e-13 seconds. So, what is the fastest timers around? Brian |
| Cyberdragon:
https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/design/a32434104/worlds-fastest-camera/ https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2017/10/worlds-shortest-laser-pulse.html already way past 1e-15 with lasers :popcorn: |
| raptor1956:
--- Quote from: Cyberdragon on June 16, 2021, 01:19:18 am ---https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/design/a32434104/worlds-fastest-camera/ https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2017/10/worlds-shortest-laser-pulse.html already way past 1e-15 with lasers :popcorn: --- End quote --- I'm looking at an actual timer where it can be started and stopped and the difference in time displayed. I understand there's really fast cameras and laser pulses, but I'd like to know what the fastest 'timer' is? Brian |
| edpalmer42:
There are time interval counters that could be set up so that the launch of the pulse was detected on one channel and the return pulse was detected on another channel. The Stanford Research SR-620 has a resolution of 20 ps. The Wavecrest DTS series claims hardware resolution of 800 fs for some models, but practical measurements are in the 1-5 ps range. With multiple measurements and averaging, results get better than that. |
| joeqsmith:
While the speed of light is a constant and you can measure the error of your setup, I attempted to run a similar experiment after someone had asked. I used a scope and PMT. There are other time experiments included in this video. I later repeated the laser test with my faster scope (second video). That particular scope is the fastest I have but there are certainly faster ones available. |
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