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10 Things You Never Knew About Time

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Shamim Ansary:
5. Saeculum


We’re all familiar with standard time measurements like minutes, hours, days, years, etc. But you’ve probably never heard of some of the less common time measure words. Some time words, like fortnight, have just fallen out of use. Others have always been obsure. For example, “saeculum” denotes a length of time in which the population of a given place is renewed. If a big event were to happen in a country, one saeculum would have passed when everyone alive for that event had died. To put it in context, we’re almost near the end of the 19th century saeculum. Soon, no one alive in the 1800s will still be living. Saeculum was first used by the Etruscans and became popular in early Roman times, but it’s not used often it’s such a relative term.

Another time word you probably haven’t heard: shake. A shake is an informal measure word that’s equivalent to 10 nanoseconds, and unless you work in physics, you likely have no need for this term. You probably don’t use “jiffy” very often in a precise context either. For most people, jiffy just means fast. But the term does have specific meanings too. In physics, jiffy is defined at the time it takes for light to travel one Fermi, or about 3×10-29.

Shamim Ansary:
4. Daylight Saving Time doesn’t Really Save


In the map above, the blue areas use Daylight Saving Time, the orange areas no longer use it, and the red areas never used it.

Although it was developed to save energy on incandescent lighting, daylight saving time doesn’t really do much in terms of conserving electricity. In fact, some studies show that DST causes greater energy consumption. The idea behind DST is that adjusting time to take advantage of daylight hours would reduce the need for residential lighting in the evenings. But as it turns out, most homes’ lighting use doesn’t depend on the sun. And since the onset of more modern lighting technology, DST’s theories no longer apply very well. Daylight saving time does do some good, however. Some studies have shown a decreased number of car accidents during savings months. And retail stores generally fare better with more afternoon daylight too.
If daylight savings doesn’t save us energy, why, then, do we still use it? The practice remains controversial, and there really is no clear reason why it’s still in place. Most likely, countries continue to use DST because people are used to it. Also, many people prefer the light schedule associated with DST, even though it’s somewhat inconvenient to switch clocks. Still, some countries have switched from using saving time. And within, countries, time usage will vary from place to place. For example, in the United States, Arizona does not use DST, although all other states do. The same is true for Manitoba in Canada; although most other provinces use Daylight Saving Time, Manitoba, the central province, does not. All the variation around the world can be extremely confusing, especially for people travelling from place to place on a quick vacation.

Shamim Ansary:
3. Time is Old, but Clock Technology isn’t


The concept of time dates back as far as recorded history, probably longer. But measuring time is a newer invention. Sundials and water clocks were the first measuring devices, but both of these were inaccurate. Mechanical clocks made their debut in Europe in the Middle Ages; many of these transferred technology from water clocks onto the new weight-based design. Clock making boomed in Europe in the 13th and 14th centuries as clocks were built into buildings in many cities. Most of these clocks only used an hour hand, and many of them told time according to ecclesiastical needs. Not until the pendulum was invented in 1656 were clocks close to accurate.

Shamim Ansary:
2. It’s Five Minutes to Midnight on the Doomsday Clock


The “Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.” Since its inception, the Doomsday Clock has been on the cover of every issue.

The Doomsday Clock is a metaphorical measure of time that estimates how close humanity is to self destruction, represented by midnight. The Clock was first set in 1947, and it is maintained to this day by the board of directors under the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists at the University of Chicago. Originally, the clock was set at seven minutes to midnight and represented the threat of nuclear war. Nowadays, however, the Doomsday Clock is directed at the possibility of self destruction by global climate change. The clock is adjusted every so often to reflect the changing times; the last change took place on January 17, 2007.

The current position of five minutes to midnight seems catastrophic, but it’s actually not as close to destruction as the clock one read. During the height of the Cold War, from 1953 to 1960, the clock was set at two minutes to midnight. The farthest it ever was from midnight was 17 minutes from 1991 to 1995, when the United States and the Soviet Union signed the Strategic Arms Agreement ending the Cold War.

Shamim Ansary:
1. Time is Different Everywhere you go


People notate time differently all around the world. And, although we follow a standard time for world business, the time in a country is variable. It doesn’t really equate to solar time, especially during daylight saving time. Time zones were created to tell time according to each area’s own “noon,” or time when the sun is highest. But due to political boundaries and DST, the sun isn’t always at its peak when the clock reads noon. Some places keep their clocks as much as three-and-a-half hours ahead or behind solar time!
Alaska is a particularly good example of a place where solar time and clock time never match. Alaska is a huge state, spanning more than one idealized time zone. But to keep time uniform there, the U.S. decided to have the whole state follow “Alaska Time.” In Nome, Alaska, a very Western city in the state, is more than three hours ahead of the sun in the summer time. The same is true in China. All of the massive country follows the same time zone, so the solar noon can occur as late as 3 p.m. in some Eastern areas.

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