Exhibition: To the femtosecond

The search for precision has been a driving force in the development and innovation of watchmaking since the 16th century. Since the Second World War, this precision has passed from the hands of watchmakers and astronomers to those of physicists: time is defined by the observation of physical phenomena and no longer by astronomical observation. The femtosecond - a billionth of a second - is the most precise fraction of a second that it is possible to measure to date. This degree of precision, imperceptible to ordinary people, has nevertheless become essential to the organization of our daily lives: geolocation, transportation, and telecommunications have become efficient thanks to the extreme precision of the clocks that govern them.


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