Re: Some of the World’s Atomic Clocks Were Off La st Week (by 5-Millionths of a Second) - The New York Times
Paul <[email protected]>
| Newsgroups | alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt,alt.conspiracy |
|---|---|
| Organization | A noiseless patient Spider |
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
On Tue, 12/23/2025 3:20 PM, dart200 wrote: > On 12/23/25 12:01 PM, Paul wrote: >> On Tue, 12/23/2025 1:22 PM, dart200 wrote: >>> On 12/23/25 4:24 AM, Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote: >>>> Some of the World’s Atomic Clocks Were Off Last Week (by 5-Millionths of a Second) - The New York Times >>>> <https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/science/atomic-clock-late- colorado.html> >>>> >>>> Power outage in Boulder area affects atomic clock, "Time is not broken" NIST says - CBS Colorado >>>> https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/power-outage-boulder-atomic-clock- nist/ >>>> >>>> >>> >>> don't they have backup power sources? >>> >> I think their backup power source failed. >> >> "They have backup generators. And those were working... but apparently one of the >> generators failed after a couple days. Specifically, the generator that powered the >> main ensemble clock that's used by the NTP servers." >> >> For a change, it wasn't a "failure to start" case. It was a "failure in service" >> of the backup device. And the staff who were still on site (when they were likely >> not supposed to be on site), they re-routed power after the generator went down. >> When your staff are able to do that, that improves the "practical reliability model" >> of your site. There is nothing a well trained elf and a bag of extension cords >> cannot achieve. >> >> Paul > > should've had battery backup > There would be (multiple) batteries in the room. But they're not "big" batteries. They would be UPS to handle the interval before the diesels start. My computer time is a fraction of a second short of this one :-) https://nist.time.gov/ We compare the rock shards (behind the lab with the clocks)... https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/styles/1200w_x_720h/public/images/2023/04/27/middle.jpg.webp?itok=PJvnArMc to this picture. Now you get the picture. https://www.aip.org/fyi/decaying-facilities-threaten-nists-physics-labs-panel-finds Paul