DENVER (KDVR) — While you likely check your watch or phone for the time several times a day — or even several times an hour — have you ever though about just how that time gets in your pocket?
It turns out that highly accurate atomic clocks situated in Colorado — more specifically in Boulder — play a role in making sure you’re able to know to the millisecond exactly what time it is.
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Official U.S. time
The official U.S. time is calibrated through a joint partnership between the National Institute of Technology and the U.S. Naval Observatory.
Both serve as the official timekeepers of the nation and help maintain Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) alongside other nations.
According to NIST, over 20 atomic clocks located in Boulder are used for their part of the partnership.
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Interestingly enough, even though the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington D.C. is the other partner in the timekeeping business and the primary location of its clocks is in the nation’s capital, Colorado still has something to do with it.