Anyone got the right time?

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Vista
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Anyone got the right time?

Post by Vista »

So there I was trying to set the correct time on my watch using the clock, internet and phone at the same time.

My radio controlled digital clock was 1 second faster than the GMT website which in turn was 1 second faster than the speaking clock over the phone!

Who is right?
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Re: Anyone got the right time?

Post by Yoda »

It's about path lengths. The longer the trail the greater the inaccuracy.
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Re: Anyone got the right time?

Post by Vista »

Yoda

Can you expand as I'm curious. I know in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter a row of beans because I will just make sure I use the same instrument to set my watch each time thus ensuring a measure of how accurate my watch is.

But what is the real time, it's bugging me now.
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Re: Anyone got the right time?

Post by Yoda »

There is only one man who sets the time in the world. He's in New York but time was set by Greenwich UK and due to the variations of the Earths rotation around the Sun, it was known as Greenwich Mean Time. Those days have gone now that we use atomic clocks. Just to make the whole thing as simple as GMT, we use several atomic clocks and pole them for accuracy that will give us time! We do that so that we can set satellite clocks to them as well, GPS. That is how we can fix position anywhere in the world to less than a metre.

Now if you want to know what the time is think about where the signal is coming from. If a train leaves a station at exactly 4 o/c and I have set my watch to a signal on BBC News 24, a satellite channel, the path length for the signal ie Earth, Sputnic , Earth will cause a delay of about 0.8 of a second, which is a large amount of time nowadays. I will miss the train. If it comes from Rugby, then the delay is about 0.1 of a second or less. So your bedside clock which keeps time to Rugby or somewhere in Germany, is the best bet. Radio transmission is at the speed of light, somewhere around an average of 300,000 Kms per second

The only other problem you have is the manual setting of your watches. Because you have an inbuilt delay called reaction time, the correct time must be anticipated when setting.
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Re: Anyone got the right time?

Post by Vista »

Right, got it now, so the answer is the Radio Controlled Clock.
It's probably best to set my watch 1 second ahead to allow for reaction time of both my finger and the mechanical operation of the watch :?
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Re: Anyone got the right time?

Post by Yoda »

You will probably find that when you have preset the hands, ready to initiate, half a second is all that is required.
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Re: Anyone got the right time?

Post by Vista »

Reactions of a Master Jedi I have not
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Re: Anyone got the right time?

Post by Vista »

So if you want truly accurate time on your timepiece, set it using a radio controlled clock 0.5 of a second ahead to allow for reaction time OR use the GMT website but bear in mind it's 1 second slow OR use the speaking clock which is 2 seconds slow so when she says "The time on the 3rd stroke is......." set your watch on the 1st stroke :lol:
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Re: Anyone got the right time?

Post by Yoda »

By its very nature you cannot use a website to set a watch. Servers will send the message all around the world a couple of times if they have to just to get the message to you. So the only time on the web is its own time.
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