27 Oct
2011
27 Oct
'11
6:04 p.m.
On Thu, Oct 27, 2011 at 11:47:07AM -0400, Monty Montgomery wrote:
Really? Any supply that's out of phase will instantly face the wrath
of the collective rest of the system. "boom". The whole continent
would have to be moved simultaneously.
More or less, yes. But since the grid is not a zero-impedance
connection of everyone to everyone, phase errors (and therefore
small temporary frequency errors) can exists between distant
areas on the same grid. See for example
<http://fnetpublic.utk.edu/anglecontour.html>
Ciao,
--
FA
At least in NA, mains frequency is very very stable.
The entire
continent is in phase and clocked with very high precision. It's more
stable than a free-running digital clock.
Yes, the long-term stability will be very good, as the frequency is
adjusted to keep clocks in sync. But there are small short-term
variations all the time which you won't notice on a clock, but can
be measured easily.