Parts of a sundial

(drawings:Encyclopedia Britannica)

Did you know.......

• Not all time zones are in one hour increments. Some countries use 30 minute offsets. When the time in Greenwich is 12:00 noon, it is 8:30am in Newfoundland and 9:30pm in Australia. In Nepal, however, they use a time offset in quarter hours, so the time there would be 5:45pm. Daylight savings time on Lord Howe Island in Australia is only 30 minutes later than regular time.

• The wristwatch was invented in 1904 by Louis Cartier.

• There are 31,557,600 seconds in a year.

• Horology - The science of time, timekeepers (watches, clocks) and timekeeping.

• A jiffy is an actual measurement equal to 1/100th of a second.

• The world's smallest atomic clock has been developed by physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology(NIST). It is small enough to fit on the tip of a pencil, yet is accurate to one second in 300 years.It operates on a AA battery. If it can be mass produced, it will replace the quartz watch, which is much bulkier and less accurate. We may see them one day in any devices that depend on accurate time, such as GPS systems and cell phones. Then you won't have any excuse for being late to work.

• Prior to 1995, International Date Line split the country of Kiribati. The result was that the eastern part of Kiribati was a whole day and two hours behind the western part of the country where its capital is located.

• To Calculate the Day of the Week for a Given Date. (From 1 January 1583* to 31 December 4000)Click here.

• The state of Arizona does not observe DST. However the Navajo Reservation in Arizona does change to Daylight time. The Hopi Reservation is within the Navajo Reservation and does not observe DST (as rest of the state).

• The  second is defined as exactly 9,192,631,770 oscillations or cycles of the cesium atom's resonant frequency, replacing the old second that was defined in terms of the Earth's motions. The newest generation of the "Atomic Clock" is accurate to 30 billionths of a second a year. It is the most accurately measured physical quantity in science.

• Official U.S. Government time, as provided by NIST and USNO, is available on the Internet at Government Time . NIST also offers an Internet Time Service (ITS) and an AutomatedComputer Time Service (ACTS) that allow setting of computer and other clocks through the Internet or over standard commercial telephone lines. Free software for using these services on several types of popular computers can be downloaded there. Information about these services can be found on the Time and Frequency Division Web site.

• To find out the time anywhere in the world, go to www.timezoneconverter.com. You can create a reference chart that is useful as a reference from your own time zone, to anywhere in the world.

• Daylight Savings Time:First thought of by Benjamin Franklin in his 1784 essay, "An Economical Project".

• According to Discover Magazine, scientists have managed to divide time down to attoseconds or 1/1,000,000,000,000,000,000 of a second (18 zeros). If a trip from New York to Los Angeles took one nanosecond (1 billionth of a second), then you would travel about 1/5 of an inch in one attosecond. At that speed, you could travel 112 million times around the earth in one second. Fast enough to get by in New York.

• A new clock is being built that is supposed to last for 10,000 years. The problems with it's construction is materials durable enough to last. Normal wear and tear over that period of time can greatly affect it's accuracy. Another factor, is whether anyone will be around to read it, or if the place where it is housed can last that long. It will be several years befor it is completed. Several prototypes have already been produced.
  

Time Quotes

• Time heals all wounds, unless you pick at them.

• 'Time is what keeps things from happening at once.' 

• 'Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.' 

-- Hector Berlioz

• Minutes are worth more than money. Spend them wisely.
  --Thomas P. Murphy
  

• Can anybody remember when the times were not hard and money not scarce?
  --Ralph Waldo Emerson
  

• Someone once told me that time is a predator that stalked us all our lives. But I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey that reminds us to cherish every moment because they'll never comeagain. What we leave behind is not as important as how we live it. After all, Number One, we're only mortal.
  --Captain Jean Luc Picard Star Trek Generations Paramount Pictures, 1994
  

• The time for action is now. It's never too late to do something.
  
  --Carl Sandburg Author
  

• The time to relax is when you don't have time for it.
  
  --Sidney J. Harris
  

• Time may be a great healer, but it's a lousy beautician
  
  --Unknown
  

• Time flies like the wind. Fruit flies like bananas.
  
  --Groucho Marx (1890-1977)
  

• The bad news is time flies. The good news is you're the pilot.
  
  --Michael Althsuler
  

• I've been on a calendar but I have never been on time
  
  --Marilyn Monroe
  

• You can't change the past, but you can ruin the present by worrying about the future.
  
  --Anonymous
  
  
• The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

• If you get up one more time than you fall, you will make it through."
  
  --Chinese Proverb
  

Schematic of a typical weight driven clock

Drawing:Encyclopedia Brittanica