How is Your 8 O‘clock Different from Mine? The Accuracy of Public Timekeeping

Abstract

Public timekeeping devices such as analogue watch, digital watch and smart watch give several of accuracy as there are differences between the public time and the standard time. The consequence of having various accuracies in timekeeping is there will be difficulties in having reasonable agreement with other timekeeping devices when it involves public time-reference applications such as attendance system, car parking system, prayer timekeeping as well as making appointments and meetings. In this paper, public timekeeping accuracy has been determined. The data for this study is collected using questionnaire survey, in which the respondents are asked about the information of their timekeeping devices and accuracy. One-way analysis of variance and independent t-test are used to determine the factors of that impact on public timekeeping accuracy. Our results show that type of timekeeping devices, gender differences and calibration of the devices have significant impacts on public timekeeping accuracy. The findings also indicate that public timekeeping accuracy for this study is 2.07 min (S.D. ± 2.20 min). Differences ranged from -8.12 to +10.07 minutes, with a median of 1.18 minutes. Overall, this study provides evidence that it is difficult for the public to perfectly match their time with the Malaysian Standard Time. With these findings in mind, policy makers should consider timekeeping accuracy among the public in order to define acceptable range in time-compliance.