Time

[Tone2TheBone]

.....why is a minute of time....60 seconds? Why isn't it 80 seconds? Or 100 seconds? Who decided it was going to be 60 seconds?

[Tim]

Accurate Mechanical Clocks

In 1656, Christiaan Huygens, a Dutch scientist, made the first pendulum clock, regulated by a mechanism with a "natural" period of oscillation. (Galileo Galilei is credited with inventing the pendulum-clock concept, and he studied the motion of the pendulum as early as 1582. He even sketched out a design for a pendulum clock, but he never actually constructed one before his death in 1642.) Huygens' early pendulum clock had an error of less than 1 minute a day, the first time such accuracy had been achieved. His later refinements reduced his clock's error to less than 10 seconds a day.

Around 1675, Huygens developed the balance wheel and spring assembly, still found in some of today's wristwatches. This improvement allowed portable 17th century watches to keep time to 10 minutes a day. And in London in 1671, William Clement began building clocks with the new "anchor" or "recoil" escapement, a substantial improvement over the verge because it interferes less with the motion of the pendulum.

In 1721, George Graham improved the pendulum clock's accuracy to 1 second per day by compensating for changes in the pendulum's length due to temperature variations. John Harrison, a carpenter and self-taught clock-maker, refined Graham's temperature compensation techniques and developed new methods for reducing friction. By 1761, he had built a marine chronometer with a spring and balance wheel escapement that won the British government's 1714 prize (worth more than $10,000,000 in today's currency) for a means of determining longitude to within one-half degree after a voyage to the West Indies. It kept time on board a rolling ship to about one-fifth of a second a day, nearly as well as a pendulum clock could do on land, and 10 times better than required to win the prize.

Over the next century, refinements led in 1889 to Siegmund Riefler's clock with a nearly free pendulum, which attained an accuracy of a hundredth of a second a day and became the standard in many astronomical observatories. A true free-pendulum principle was introduced by R.J. Rudd about 1898, stimulating development of several free-pendulum clocks. One of the most famous, the W.H. Shortt clock, was demonstrated in 1921. The Shortt clock almost immediately replaced Riefler's clock as a supreme timekeeper in many observatories. This clock contained two pendulums, one a slave and the other a master. The slave pendulum gave the master pendulum the gentle pushes needed to maintain its motion, and also drove the clock's hands. This allowed the master pendulum to remain free from mechanical tasks that would disturb its regularity.

UPDATE:

Chaucer's Tretise of the Astrelabie, perhaps the first scientific treatise written in the English language, deals with many uses of the instrument including finding the time. [4] He first explains how to calculate the angular length of "the arch of the day, that some folk callen the day artificiall, fro sonne arisyng tyl it go to reste" (Conclusioun 7) and then moves onto "the day vulgar, that is to seyn fro spryng of the day unto verrey night" (Conclusioun 9). To work out the length of the relevant hours in degrees, one divides the "arch of the day" by twelve. Then he moves on to his favoured method of counting hours:

Conclusioun 11: To know the quantite of houres equales.
The quantite of houres equales, that is to seyn the houres of the clokke, ben departed [divided] by 15 degrees alredy in the bordure of thin Astrelaby, as wel by night as by day, generaly for evere. What nedith more declaracioun?
Wherfore whan thou list to knowe hou many houres of the clokke ben passed, or eny part of eny of these houres that ben passed, or ellis how many houres or parties of houres ben to come fro such a tyme by day or by night, know the degre of thy sonne, and ley thy label [alidade] on it. Turne thy ryet [rete] aboute jointly with thy label, and with the poynt of it rekne in the bordure fro the sonne arise unto that same place there thou desirest, by day as by night.

[SuperSwede]

Wow! The Fret Net is better than Discovery Channel! :)

[warren0728]

i thought i decided for it be 60....my first choice was 69 but my wife wouldn't let me :D

[Tone2TheBone]

In the same vein.....why is a complete circle 360 degrees? Why isn't it 400 degrees? Who makes up these absolutes?

Do we see colors or taste food the same way as the next person?.......

[warren0728]

come on guys...watch the matrix...it will explain everything...it's all in the programming!

ww :D

[Tone2TheBone]

Yeah and every once in awhile I catch "glitches" in the program too.

[warren0728]

my whole life is a glitch :D

ww

[r_a_smith3530]

And who decided that a foot would be made up of twelve inches instead of ten? Although in the US our system is ingrained in most of us, doesn't a system like the metric system, based on multiples of ten, make so much more sense? What great knucklehead came up with inches, feet, and yards?

Who decided how big an acre would be, and why?

And then of course, last, but certainly not the least, in the famous words of Bill Cosby, "What's a cubit?" :D

[SuperSwede]

Yes, embrace the metric system!

10mm = 1cm
10cm = 1dm
10dm = 1m
1000m = 1km
10km = 1 metric mile.

Got it? ;)

[warren0728]

too complicated :D

[Tim]

Did I not read somewhere the Anderson Cooper designed the 360?

[Tone2TheBone]

Exactly Rob thats what I'm talking about. Who makes up this stuff? And why?

Tim - The CNN reporter?

[Tim]

T2TB,

Yes, One in the same.

[SuperSwede]

T2TB sounds like some terminator character!

[Tone2TheBone]

..."ah be bhak"

[SuperSwede]

hah stah lha vihsta bahbyh

[Tone2TheBone]

BTW where is Sweden in the running for medals?

[SuperSwede]

2 golds, but I am not watching too much besides the hockey...

[Justaguyin_nc]

The sexagesimal (base-60) divisions of units of angles (one circle = 6*60 degrees, 1 degree = 60 minutes of arc, 1 minute of arc = 60 seconds of arc) and time (1 hour = 60 minutes, 1 minute = 60 seconds) are ultimately based on practices of the ancient Babylonians, who used base 60 for all of their calculations. Their divisions of time and angle were copied by the ancient Greeks, and theirs by the Romans, and we inherited them from the Romans. The 24 hours of a day come from the ancient Egyptians, who divided both the day and the night into 12 equal parts.

And I also believe I read someplace that T2TB stood for R2D2 but that was from a galaxy far far away...

[Tim]

Nice stuff there Justaguy. You must of paid attention in school when the teachers taught you. It was kind of you to share your knowledge with us. Now I understand the whole time - relative quantum theory thing.

I want to thank T2TB for the question and Einstein for equation explanation.

[r_a_smith3530]

And I also believe I read someplace that T2TB stood for R2D2 but that was from a galaxy far far away...

Now, THAT'S the important part.

And just remember, it was Einstein who discovered, "It's all relative!" :D

[Tone2TheBone]

Heyyy I knew someone would know where it all started.....thanks Justa. Beep Bloop Blapp...Beep. Wer-er wer-er (R2 sounds).

This is my favorite Einstein quote -

"The years of searching in the dark for the truth that one feels but cannot express, the intense desire and the alternations of confidence and misgivings until one breaks through the clarity and understanding are known only to him who has himself experienced them." - A. Einstein

[r_a_smith3530]

This is my favorite Einstein quote -

"The years of searching in the dark for the truth that one feels but cannot express, the intense desire and the alternations of confidence and misgivings until one breaks through the clarity and understanding are known only to him who has himself experienced them." - A. Einstein

Actually, I have a couple of favorites -

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

"If I had only known, I would have been a locksmith."

- both, A. Einstein

[Katastrophe]

Dang! I don't post for a coupla days and y'all are getting all philomosophomocal on me! Impressive to say the least.




















And here I was, thinking "Time" was created by Pink Floyd...:D

[Guild6]

In the same vein.....why is a complete circle 360 degrees? Why isn't it 400 degrees? Who makes up these absolutes?

Do we see colors or taste food the same way as the next person?.......
Red is gray, and yellow white, but we decide which is right....Moody Blues.
I'll try one of those "yellow submarines" thanks. They taste just like chicken.:whatever:

[Tim]

Red is gray, and yellow white, but we decide which is right....Moody Blues.
:

Quoted from "Days of Future Pass" - The Moody Blues! They are my favorite band.

[just strum]

Just wanted to pop in one of my favorite lines. Although it's not the Moody Blues, it's a line that grabbed me from PF Dark Side of the Moon

And all you touch and all you see
Is all your life will ever be.

[Tim]

Just wanted to pop in one of my favorite lines. Although it's not the Moody Blues, it's a line that grabbed me from PF Dark Side of the Moon

And all you touch and all you see
Is all your life will ever be.


Those early progressive rock bands came up with a lot of good one liners. It must have been the drugs that enhanced the brian cells.