So when I was growing up, there was a phone number that I would dial whenever I was bored,

just to have someone to call.

At least once a week, I'd grab the handset off the wall and punch in the 10 digit number.

And that phone number would tell you the exact time, 24-7.

At the tone, he's turned in daylight time, 1 hour, 36 minutes, 30 seconds.

Universal time, 5 hours, 36 minutes, 35 seconds.

Personally, I think I just like punching in the buttons and pretending I had a called

make.

But this was before smartphones, before all of our digital timepieces automatically synced

up.

So sometimes the clock in the kitchen read 5 minutes slower than your bedroom alarm clock.

And it could be hard to figure out what was the accurate time.

So how do we determine the time?

Well, there's an official clock, and it's located in Boulder, Colorado, at the National Institute

of Standards and Technology.

I'm Alex Salim, and this is Atlas Obscara, a celebration of the world's strange, incredible,

and wondrous places.

Join me as we visit the official timekeepers.

Now, if you want to create a super accurate clock, you need to have a really precise measurement

of time, and that standard unit is the second.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, is a government agency that sets

the standard for measurements that we all go by.

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