 Media Credit: Lisle Alderton William D. Phillips gives a demostration of the physical effects of extreme cold on matter by dipping a rose into a vial of liquid nitrogen and then shattering it on the ground. Phillips, a 1997 Nobel Prize winner spoke Monday in the K-State Alumni Center on "Time and Einstein in the 21st Century: the Coolest Stuff in the Universe."
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 Media Credit: Lisle Alderton Seven-year-old Tony Chen was part of the large crowd that watched Noble Prize winner William D. Phillips' show Monday afternoon at the K-State Alumni Center.
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Albert Einstein's early 20th century theories still apply to time-keeping accuracy in the 21st century, said a physicist and Nobel laureate Monday afternoon.
William D. Phillips, a fellow of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, presented "Time and Einstein in the 21st Century: The Coolest Stuff in the Universe" to a full room of K-State students, faculty and community members at the K-State Alumni Center.
Audience members laughed as Phillips poured liquid nitrogen on tables and the carpeted floor. The liquid instantly boiled because of its cool temperature relative to room temperature.
Phillips performed a series of experiments to explain laser cooling and heating and their importance to atomic clocks.
"Einstein showed that both space and time were things that depended on who was looking at them," Phillips said.
During the early 1900s, Einstein defined time as what a clock measures, Phillips said. A clock is something that ticks, providing a periodic uniform series of eavents, Phillips said. Examples of clocks throughout history include the rotating earth and a swinging pendulum, he said.
Such mechanical clocks, though, are imperfect, Phillips said. The length of a pendulum swing might stretch or shrink with temperature changes, while each quartz watch is made differently, he said.
The earth's rotations even vary with different currents, Phillips said. However, atomic clocks are accurate because every cesium-133 atom in the world is identical.
Atomic fountain clocks, which use fountain-like movements of atoms to measure frequencies and time intervals, are the most accurate timepieces ever made, Phillips said.
Phillips said atomic clocks are important for modern Global Positioning System, which is a Global Navigation Satellite System. He also said atomic clocks in satellites guide vehicles, planes, backpackers and military vehicles.
"Today, without an understanding of the results of general relativity, the Global Positioning System would be off by kilometers," Phillips said.
The future of atomic clocks includes more accurate clocks, tests of the fundamental understanding of nature, quantum computers and other scientific aspects that have yet to be discovered, Phillips said.
Along with Steven Chu and Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, Phillips shared the 1997 Nobel Prize for physics because of their work in developing methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light. He also serves as a university distinguished professor of physics at the University of Maryland. Phillips also has familial ties at K-State. His brother, Tom Phillips, has served as head of the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology since July 2007.
During the question-and-answer period, an audience member asked Phillips what kind of watch he wears because of his fascination with time.
"As a government employee, I cannot endorse a specific watch brand," Phillips said with a laugh. "But I do wear a digital Quartz watch."
Phillips' lecture connected basic physics research with practical application in time keeping and clocks, said Dean Zollman, university distinguished professor and head of the Department of Physics.
"Overall, from the types of questions we had at the end and the students I talked to at the end, I think it related very well," Zollman said. "He was able to explain very complicated research and how it relates to people even if they don't understand the physics."
The Peterson Public Lecture Series in Physics sponsored Phillips' lecture. Now in its second year at K-State, Chester Peterson Jr. said he endowed the lecture series as a catalyst for young students to get them interested in physics.
Peterson, who received two bachelor's and a master's degree from K-State, also said Phillips' enthusiasm captured audience members during his lecture.
"He communicated well to the audience, and he took something that was semitechnical and put it in a way people could understand," said Peterson, a Lindsborg, Kan., resident. "He showed that the world is so complex and that youngsters can have a part in it."
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