Japan puts "world's most accurate clock" on sale for eye-popping price
Tokyo, Japan - Resembling a squat, wide fridge, the world's most accurate clock just went on sale for $3.3 million in Japan on Wednesday.
No, that's not a soda machine... it's a clock! And not just any old clock either.
The "Aether clock OC 020" clock is so precise that it would take 10 billion years for it to deviate by one second, according to its Kyoto-based manufacturer Shimadzu Corp.
Known as a "strontium optical lattice clock," it is 100 times more accurate than caesium atomic clocks, the current standard for defining seconds, the precision-equipment producer said in a statement on the sale.
The revolutionary machine, a box around a meter (3 feet) tall, is small for its kind with a volume of around 250 liters.
Shimadzu is aiming to sell 10 of its high-tech clocks over the next three years and hopes that its customers will use them to advance scientific research in areas such as the observation of tectonic activity.
Optical lattice clocks have previously been installed in Tokyo's famous Skytree to test the general theory of relativity, which states that "time flows more slowly in places with strong gravity."
Cover photo: Unsplash/Jon Tyson