I suppose one could argue that even a manually disciplined clock (e.g.,
analog AA wall clock in the kitchen) is ultimately computer regulated
when flicking the hands while glancing at a cell phone.

The 10,000-year clock is disciplined by the Sun, though for some
functions this is relative to its equation of time cam machined to
deliver the result of computations performed by JPL:

  * http://blog.longnow.org/02007/06/04/solar-synchronizer/
  * 
http://blog.longnow.org/02018/12/05/the-equation-of-time-cam-keeping-good-time-for-10000-years/

Rob

--

On 2/8/19 6:29 AM, Tom Van Baak wrote:
> (steering the topic back to steps, smears, and leap seconds)
>
> Tony, Rob,
>
> It's not surprising if the Corpus Clock is disciplined against MSF. This 
> trick is used more often than you think. John C Taylor presented at the 
> Caltech "Time for Everyone" symposium in 2013:
>
> http://saving-time.org/timeforeveryone/speakers/dr-john-c-taylor
> http://saving-time.org/timeforeveryone/program/
>
> While there he revealed another of his inventions, the "intelligent 
> pendulum", which you can see in the top third of this image from his web site:
>
> http://www.johnctaylor.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/montage-myvision-science.jpg
>
> A more detailed set of photos and description of the prototype is found here:
>
> http://www.marbleproductdesign.co.uk/projects/intelligent-pendulum.php
>
> It's a battery operated device that functions both as a cosmetically 
> appropriate pendulum bob (of sufficient mass) and an accurate quartz clock 
> (of superior accuracy). The trick is to use an embedded accelerometer and 
> microcontroller to detect and measure the periodic swinging motion and 
> compute the mean period of the pendulum using the quartz oscillator as a time 
> reference. Then, if the pendulum rate is found to be inaccurate, that is, if 
> the pendulum is drifting in time, the device activates a geared-down stepper 
> motor to climb up or down the pendulum rod some fraction of a mm in order to 
> correct the rate. No different than NTP, really.
>
> For a standard seconds pendulum (length ~1 meter, period ~2 seconds) changing 
> the location of the mass by 1 mm results in a 500 ppm change in rate, 
> equivalent to ~40 seconds/day. To make a one second per day change one only 
> needs to move the bob by 20 microns. Don't laugh. This is done. Precision 
> pendulum clocks are a world where microns and microseconds matter a lot. And 
> leap seconds are a pain for them too.
>
> There's a wonderful BBC video showing how Big Ben is adjusted for leap 
> seconds:
>
> "Leap second: Slowing down Big Ben" [1]
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7792436.stm
>
> In this case they do not literally move the massive weight up or down, but 
> instead, by adding tiny weights (usually penny coins) they change the 
> effective center of gravity of the bob, which is all that matters. This is an 
> unexpected application of the saying that "time is money".
>
> /tvb
>
> [1] If someone (UK only?) can capture this short video as mp4 I'd appreciate 
> it.
>
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