[time-nuts] I think I've become a Volt nut too.

[Magnus Danielson]

Hal Murray wrote:
> aa8k at comcast.net said:
>> It is not impossible that for a sample of 100,000 secondary
>> standards, that the errors would be all be off in the same  direction,
>> compared to the standard's value.
> 
>> Now, granted, this would be a small probability indeed.  But it  is
>> possible to toss a coin fifty times and have fifty "heads".  The smart
>> bet is that it won't. 
> 
> You need to consider systematic errors.
> 
> 50 heads is simple if you are using a 2 headed coin.  Yes, that's an extreme 
> example.

Consider lead-head and aluminium-back-sided coins. Systematic bias.
Consider that the same coin is used for many tosses, the lead would wear 
  off over time, so you have an aging mechanism which shifts the statistics.

> But consider 100,000 pendulums that are all right-on and then the temperature 
> changes.

Temperature gradients always occur from one end of the cave?

Cheers,
Magnus