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Liz Zelencich

Program Manager

A Walk Through Time


During most of human history, people told time by the sun. They
arranged to meet at dawn, when the sun came up, or at noon, when
the sun was highest in the sky, or at sunset, when the sun went down.
When you agreed to work for somebody, you measured your working
hours by the day, from sunup to sundown. The time from one new moon
to another was a month, and the time from one spring to the next was
a year.

The Beginning of Time


Prehistoric humans, by simple observation of the stars,
changes in the seasons, day and night, began
to come up with very primitive methods
of measuring time. This was necessary
for planning nomadic activity, farming,
sacred feasts and so on.
The Egyptians were the rst people

The Sands of
Time
The major fault with
sundials and shadow
clocks is obvious - they don't work
at night! Amenophis (Amen-o-s) I, the king of Egypt,
wanted to know what time it was all through the night
without having to check the position of the stars. As you
can imagine, it would be inconvenient to get up and out
of bed every time you wanted to know the time.
So, Prince Amenemhet (Amen-m-hey) made the king
a clepsydra or a water clock. He took a big bucket and
lled it with water up to a specic line. He then cut a
small hole in the bottom of the bucket and marked off
lines on the bucket after each hour had passed.
There were, of course, some problems with this water
clock as well. Water would ow more slowly or quickly
when the temperature changed. This is where sand
came into effect. The inventor of the sand clock is
unknown but the sand clock or hourglass was commonly
used in ancient times and is still used today. They are
often found in board games or are used as kitchen
timers. Is there an hourglass in your home?

Saving Daylight:
HISTORY:
Ancient civilizations are known to have engaged in a
practice similar to modern Daylight Saving where they
would change their daily schedules in accordance to the
sun.
Benjamin Franklin is often credited with being the
inventor of Daylight Saving. In 1784 he suggested
people could cut back on the use of candles by rising
earlier in the morning and making use of the morning
sunlight.
Another major contributor to the invention of Daylight
Saving was New Zealand entomologist (a person
who focuses specically on the study of
insects) George Vernon Hudson. In
1895, Hudson proposed a two-hour
shift forward in October and a
two-hour shift back in March. He
followed up his proposal with an
article in 1898, and although there was
interest in the idea, it was never followed
through.
During the First World War, Germany
introduced a Daylight Saving program
to save power. They ordered everyone
to set their clocks ahead by one hour, or
one hour ahead of standard Sun time.

who created a twenty-four hour day. Time was a little bit different in
those days. The night was divided up into twelve hours, which were
designated by the position of stars in the sky. The day was divided into
ten hours and a shadow clock was used to keep track of these hours.
The twilight hours were the hours before dawn and after sunset.
The Egyptians thought they were the rst to invent the shadow clock,
but they were mistaken. At the same time, the Chinese, Babylonians,
Greeks and the Romans were using instruments to tell time.
Sundials were used in some of these groups, not because they
worked better, just because that's how they decided to tell time.
After a while, the Egyptians and other ancient societies realised
that the sun rose and set in different places in the summer and
winter. In fact, the sun never took the same course on any
one day throughout the year! They tried everything, until
they realised that if they would just put the post of the
sundial in at a special angle, it would work all year.

Time for Change

The First Tick

that
The rst mechanical clocks had a weight
da
move
h
whic
gears
ng
movi
r,
lowe
y
would slowl
be
only
could
They
hand which showed the hour.
ed
need
hts
weig
the
use
beca
rs
towe
tall
built in
would
to fall a great distance or else the clocks
time.
of
nt
amou
short
a
for
only work
People were amazed that these clocks were
only off about two hours a day. Think if our
were
clocks today were off by that much? If we
it on
e
blam
could
we
ol,
scho
for
late
two hours
urate
inacc
were
s
the clock. While these clock
such
long ago, some of them were created with
,
andy
Norm
In
.
today
care that they still work
1389.
in
built
was
that
s
exist
clock
big
a
e,
Franc
t
In Salisbury, England you can see the oldes
oo
cuck
y,
Toda
.
1386
in
built
,
world
the
in
clock
g
oppin
ht-dr
weig
a
clocks are still built using
mechanism.

Galileo's Discovery
Galileo made an amazing contribution to the
world of time, simply by not paying attention
in church. The year was 1581 and Galileo was
17. He was standing in the Cathedral of Pisa
in Italy watching the huge chandelier swinging
back and forth from the ceiling of the cathedral.
Galileo noticed that no matter how short or long
the arc of the chandelier was, it took exactly
the same amount of time to complete a full
swing. The chandelier gave Galileo the idea to
create a pendulum clock. While the clock would
eventually runout of of energy, it would
keep accurate time until the
pendulum stopped. If the pendulum
was set swinging again before it
stopped, there would never be
a loss in accuracy. Because of
this, pendulums caught on and
are still widely used today. Can
you imagine making such a big
discovery?

Timely Tasks..
s

they know about the


Make a KWL chart. Ask students what
and what they
sun
the
t
abou
sun, what they want to learn
nts into groups,
stude
have learned about the sun. Divide
w..edu/
//ww
http:
Hunt
r
enge
Scav
e
Onlin
have each group do the
scavenger
the
When
sun.
the
t
time/Journey/JustInTime/hunt.html abou
their
share
and
her
toget
back
come
nts
stude
hunt is completed have
r
unde
chart
the
on
ed
learn
ndings. List the facts that students have
the L.
s

. Stick
Take a ball of clay and atten into a circle
middle of
an icy pole stick straight up on end in the
of the
the clay. Place the sundials in a sunny area
ial, every
sund
their
mark
nts
stude
Have
.
round
playg
next
The
clay.
the
on
hour where the shadow falls,
tell
them
have
and
de
outsi
nts
stude
day take the
time using the sundial.

WEB LINKS:
http://www.teachingtime.co.uk/
http://www..edu/time/Journey/JustInTime/contents.html

s

Since 1761, timekeeping has signicantly


changed. In 1900, pendulum clocks had
been
nely tuned so as to only be off by 1/100
of
a second each day. In the 1920's, scientists
discovered quartz crystals could keep even
more
accurate time than a pendulum and were
only
off about 1/500 of a second each year. Half
way
through the 20th century, atomic clocks were
built that would only be off by one second
every
300 million years. Who really needs a clock
that
accurate? It is evident that times have certa
inly
changed. Clocks have made major leaps
and
bounds since the days of the shadow clock
.
Now we have accurate, reliable clocks that
we
can use day and night. Some of our clock
s will
run for years without so much as a change
of
batteries or a twist of a little knob. We have
certainly developed the concept of time and
incorporated it into every moment of our
lives.

de on a sunny day. Using


Drawing shadows - Take the students outsi
school at different
the
of
ow
shad
the
e
outlin
wide chalk let them
in spot and have a
certa
a
in
times during the day. Let them stand
the changes in the
note
and
later
out
Go
ow.
shad
their
partner outline
the sun? What
site
oppo
they
Are
shadows. Where are shadows now?
goes through
it
as
move
it
does
e
Wher
in?
rise
sun
direction does the
in?
the sky? Which direction does it set

and types of timekeeping


Research different types of clocks. List dates
rs (clocks) you nd.
devices. Develop a time line of the timekeepe
ths, days, hours and even
Calculate how old you are in years, mon
-ime.com/howold.htm
e-for
milliseconds. Go to: http://www.tim

s

http://classroom.jc-schools.net/basic/math-time.html
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/GreekScience/Students/Jesse/CLOCK1A.html

Join us online at: http://www.thecourier.com.au/story/2291712/newspapers-in-education/

14 Monday, October 20, 2014

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