How do you set the time on your watch? From the speaking clock, the chimes of Big Ben perhaps but have you wondered where they get the time from?
There is no master clock that the world relies on but there is a global timescale called UTC (Coordinated Universal Time). UTC was developed after the development of atomic clocks. It is based on a combination of International Atomic Time (TAI – the time told by these clocks) and Greenwich Meantime (GMT).
While TAI is incredibly accurate it is actually too accurate as the Earths rotation slows due to the effect of the moon’s gravity. It compensates for this by adding Leap Seconds to keep in similar to GMT, otherwise night would creep into day.
UTC is governed by a constellation of atomic clocks all over the world to ensure even more accuracy (and to prevent any political squabbles).
A NTP Time Server is a device that can receive UTC time through either a radio transmission (in certain countries) or the GPS network. NTP (Network Time Protocol) is designed to synchronise all devices on a network to the time received by the NTP time server.
A NTP time server allows networks all over the world to communciate safely synchronised to the exact same time.
UTC and NTP time servers allow the whole world to communicate within the same timescale. Without them, many of the applications and processes we do online would be impossible such as Internet trading, the stock exchange, buying airline tickets and even sending and receiving email.