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Playing With Atomic Clocks At Home

Posted by kdawson on from the as-i-was-walking-down-the-street-one-day dept.

Wired is running a profile of the Time Nuts, a small group of people who buy surplus precision time equipment — cesium clocks for example — on eBay and keep really accurate time, because they can. The article quotes Tom Van Baak, who has outfitted a time lab superior to those of many small countries: "If you have one clock... you are peaceful and have no worries. If you have two clocks... you start asking, 'What time is it, really?'"

2 of 167 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Clearly.... by sm62704 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Funny yet insightful! How to mod, how to mod.

    Some people are way too anal. Jees, my ten dollar alarm clock is accurate enough for me, as are the cheap wall clocks, none of which ever differ by more than a minute.

    I have to set my clocks twice a year anyway. I don't have time to worry about what time it is.

    Next on slashdot: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: Hallmark of the nerd?

    -mcgrew

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    mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
  2. Re:Please read the article by sg3000 · · Score: 3, Insightful
    > You do know that they proved this like 60 years ago right

    Yeah, but what made it cool was that the experiment could be repeated by a regular guy with surplus stuff from Ebay.

    "If you have one clock ... you are peaceful and have no worries," says Van Baak... "If you have two clocks ... you start asking, 'What time is it, really?'"

    Well, maybe not a regular guy, but you get the idea.
    --
    Insert simplistic political, ideological, or personal proselytization here.