Written by Info Expert on November 21, 2011 | Posted in Shopping and Products

Atomic Clocks

When I first heard of an atomic clock, I thought it was literally a clock that could survive a nuclear blast and still tell the time right. Obviously this isn’t the case. Time is very important to our society and our ability to tell time accurately benefits everyone. There was a time when we could only go by the sun. Train stations would try to estimate arrival times based on the sun’s position at another station 500 miles away. As you can probably see it was a nightmare. Today, we all have clocks, but most of them aren’t atomic.

Have you ever noticed that your clocks tend to drift away from the right time? You may notice this with your microwave clock and your stove clock getting out of sync. Or maybe your watch and your cell phone time?  The biggest problem for clocks is the ability to accurately measure a second of time consistently for long periods of time (years). Most watches will use a crystal, that has a certain vibration that is ‘close enough’ to that of a second. Your alarm clock probably bases seconds on the frequency of your electricity. Both methods are pretty good at telling time, but they’re not perfect.

A television station is a specific type of application where you need exact times. The 5 o’clock news needs to come on at 5:00pm on the dot. If things are delayed by inaccurate time, it costs money. It might not seem like a lot, but 30 seconds lost is a commercial that isn’t shown. There are a number of other businesses that require this type of sophisticated method of telling exact time.

An atomic clock uses a form of radiation to tell time. I know the idea if radiation sounds scary, but it’s safe. The radiation is very stable with its frequency and this allows the clock to calculate exact seconds. If you’re someone that needs to have exact time without errors you should consider getting the Sharp atomic clock. They’re basically the premium clock maker on the market. You’ll also be happy to know that they have their own satellites that you can sync your clocks time with. When you’re able to sync, you’re going to have the right time set and the clock is going to count exact seconds for you. It’s easy, simple and accurate.

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