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Stopwatch and Timer Calibrations - National Institute of Standards ...

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Other Topics Related to Measurement Uncertainty <br />

Figure 22. Graph <strong>of</strong> the frequency stability <strong>of</strong> two stopwatches.<br />

To illustrate this, Figure 22 is a graph <strong>of</strong> the frequency stability <strong>of</strong> two stopwatches<br />

that were continuously measured over a period <strong>of</strong> more than one month using<br />

a previously described (Section 7.B.1) time base measurement system. Both<br />

stopwatches were low cost devices; stopwatch A had a suggested list price <strong>of</strong><br />

about $25 USD, <strong>and</strong> stopwatch B sells for about $55 USD. The laboratory<br />

temperature during the measurement was about 23 °C ± 1 °C. The graph shows<br />

the Allan deviation (ADEV) <strong>of</strong> each stopwatch for averaging times ranging from<br />

0.5 days to 7 days. ADEV is a commonly used statistic for estimating frequency<br />

stability [19]. It differs from the conventional st<strong>and</strong>ard deviation because it does<br />

not use the average frequency as a point <strong>of</strong> reference. Instead, it compares the<br />

frequency <strong>of</strong>fset <strong>of</strong> the DUT during each measurement period with its frequency<br />

<strong>of</strong>fset during the previous measurement period. By doing so, it reveals how the<br />

frequency <strong>of</strong> an oscillator changes over time due to effects such as aging.<br />

<strong>Stopwatch</strong> A had an average frequency <strong>of</strong>fset (accuracy) during the test <strong>of</strong> about<br />

8 × 10 -6 . As indicated in Figure 22, the stability (ADEV) was slightly better than<br />

1 × 10 -7 after one week, or about 80 times better than the accuracy. <strong>Stopwatch</strong><br />

B had an average frequency <strong>of</strong>fset (accuracy) during the test <strong>of</strong> about 5 × 10 -7 .<br />

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