The "Is It Really Time To Get Up?" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Looking at the alarm clock next to the bed, wondering if I should get out of bed or just close my eyes for another few minutes.  Clock registered 7:15 am, but I knew it really wasn't that time since I had set it 10 minutes ahead of time to make sure I was never late in getting up.  Few minutes later Carol had turned on the TV and it said 7:18 am.  Now, am I supposed to believe the TV or my clock next to me?  And why is it that when the power goes off at my house and when it comes back on again the clock next to me picks up from the time it was when the power went off while the TV has advanced to the time it really should be?  Has to do with the laws of physics and the atomic clock I found out.  Some time ago I wrote about the magazine I had subscribed to for a few years, Wired.  Eventually, I couldn't understand most of the stories in the magazine so I stopped subscribing to it; except they continued to send me the digital edition for free.  Well, I actually understood a recent digital story titled "These Physicists Watched A Clock Tick For 14 Years Straight."  Had to do with gathering 12 of the most accurate clocks around the world and watch them tick.  

A cesium fountain clock at
the National Institute of Standards
and Technology which is one of
the most accurate clocks in the world.

A group of physicists began to monitor these clocks at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado on November 11, 1999.  That's over close to 500 million seconds ago.  They found that the ticking of the clocks illustrates one of the most fundamental principles in the law of physics: no time or place in the universe is special since it's one of the basic ideas in Einstein's theory of general relativity.  Much the same as throwing a ball in the air today and having it land the same as it did a few days ago.  For you see...the laws of physics don't change!  If you watch an atomic clock tick today it will be the same tomorrow since these clocks are some of the most precise machines ever invented, since they don't rely on the swing of a pendulum or the vibrations in a quartz crystal, but following the stead beat of an atom.  They won't lose or gain a second in tens of millions or years.  And, evidently the clocks that report time on the TV are based on the atomic clock.  Therefore, from 1999 until today when I looked at the TV screen and saw the time on the screen, it is in perfect harmony with the atomic clocks in Boulder, Colorado.  And, it all has to do with the laws of physics.  At least that's what the article I read in my free digital issue of Wired says.  But, since I never could understand most of their print magazine stories, maybe I got this all wrong.  And, that's exactly why I set my alarm clock 10 minutes ahead so I won't be late getting up and missing something important I'm supposed to do.  That is unless the power goes out and spoils my idea!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.