Steve Allen wrote:
>
> Further evidence that having civil clocks tracking atomic time (or
> solar time) may be deemed less relevant than other factors.
> What good to go through the havoc of redefining UTC when governments
> and agencies will do things like this?
>
> http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/ptech/02/28/offbeat.venezuela.time.reut/index.html
I find two sentences in this report really bizarre:
> To prevent blackouts, the country slightly lowered the frequency of
> the current.
Why would a small change in frequency have much effect on the power
used? Surely reducing the voltage would have an effect but not
reducing the frequency (except maybe marginally).
> For common quartz clocks, the slight drop in frequency slows the
> vibration of the crystal that regulates time keeping, he said,
> adding, "People must be going nuts."
Umm, why should the supply frequency affect a crystal oscillator?
I think they mean non-quartz clocks.
Received on Fri Feb 28 2003 - 09:50:00 PST