The Fall of Time

In unit 3 of Light, Sound, and Time we learned about different ways of telling time. Sundials, time zones, geographical coordinates and pendulums had been some of the unconventional ways of telling time we had studied. We had done an experiment during class where we put all clocks, watches and phones in a box and experience what is was like to not know, or have access to knowing, what time it was. We then observed clocks that told time through senses other than sight. This brought us to our final action project, to design and explain our own unique time telling device. It had been very difficult to come up with a solid idea, and it had taken me a long time before I finally decided on creating an improved water clock. I definitely love how my design turned out. Please enjoy my clock and animation below.

My device is similar to test tube waterfalls in the way it looks but with a more modern flare and colored lights. The water used in it would be made to smell like lilac water. That, along with the sound of running water, make it very calming. The clock shows 15 minute intervals that lead into a 12 hour container. Many people base their time off of 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, and the hour when planning when to leave, etc. so I decided to use those increments for my clock. As I stated before, the clock has constantly running water, and a modern look. It also has colored lights that make it easier to see in the dark, and at each 15 minute mark, the water makes a splash that makes it easy to tell when 15 minutes has passed.

First of all, this clock creates a very calming atmosphere with the lilac scented water and the sound. Also, many people plan their days around 15 minute intervals. Many people in America don’t know how to read a 24 hour clock, so the large container only counts 12 hours at a time before restarting. This clock is a unique way of telling time while still being comprehensible. Many clocks that try to stray from the norm of time telling are either too complicated or too confusing to read and understand. Nearly every watch and clock has the option of an alarm at specific intervals, usually hours, but they’re loud and startling. This clock also alerts the user to the time, 15 minute intervals as well as hours, but it isn’t as startling because it’s just a splash that stands out from the usual running water sound. This clock is also very accurate because the amount of water in the entire clock stays the same and recycles itself. A lot of the time, time can slip away from us, we often rely on clocks with their timers and alarms to notify us when the specified time rolls around, but sometimes we can forget to set or change alarms. My clock can’t be used as a timer any better than the usual clock can, and it doesn’t have an alarm feature, but there’s no way to turn off the “notification” every 15 minutes. Another problem that clocks have is that unless they are digital or in some other way utilize light to tell time specifically, you can’t see them in the dark and therefore don’t know the time if there’s no external light. My clock has lights in the bases of the containers and each container is a different color.

First, the containers I’m using for the clock have a slanted base, making them trapezoids, this allows the water to easily flow from one unit to the next. Trapezoids are shapes that are made up of rectangles and triangles, for my clock those triangles are right triangles allowing me to use the Pythagorean theorem to determine the lengths of the legs and hypotenuse. Since the 12 hour container is below the 15 minute one and to restart, the water from the 12 hour would have to be recycled into the 15 minute, there needs to be a way to move water against gravity. For this, I decided to use a suction pump which relies on a circular impeller that acts like a vacuum. To determine the size of the impeller, I’d have to implement pi into my calculations.

First, the containers I’m using for the clock have a slanted base, making them trapezoids, this allows the water to easily flow from one unit to the next. Trapezoids are shapes that are made up of rectangles and triangles, for my clock those triangles are right triangles allowing me to use the Pythagorean theorem to determine the lengths of the legs and hypotenuse. Since the 12 hour container is below the 15 minute one and to restart, the water from the 12 hour would have to be recycled into the 15 minute, there needs to be a way to move water against gravity. For this, I decided to use a suction pump which relies on a circular impeller that acts like a vacuum. To determine the size of the impeller, I’d have to implement pi into my calculations.

First, the containers I’m using for the clock have a slanted base, making them trapezoids, this allows the water to easily flow from one unit to the next. Trapezoids are shapes that are made up of rectangles and triangles, for my clock those triangles are right triangles allowing me to use the Pythagorean theorem to determine the lengths of the legs and hypotenuse. Since the 12 hour container is below the 15 minute one and to restart, the water from the 12 hour would have to be recycled into the 15 minute, there needs to be a way to move water against gravity. For this, I decided to use a suction pump which relies on a circular impeller that acts like a vacuum. To determine the size of the impeller, I’d have to implement pi into my calculations.

According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology Physics Laboratory, "Water clocks were among the earliest timekeepers that didn't depend on the observation of celestial bodies." The first water clock was discovered in 1500 BC in the tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep I. They’re called Clepsydra which means “water thief” in Ancient Greece, and there are two different designs used, outflow and inflow. Outflow water clocks work by starting with a container filled with water and that has markings to show whatever time intervals were being used. The water slowly drained out of the container to show how much time had passed. Inflow is the opposite, a marked container starts out empty and a bowl with a small hole in the bottom slowly fills the container up with water and time is told based on how much water there is. Water clocks were created to fix the problems with sun dials. The first more obvious problem was that sun dials couldn’t tell the time if the sun wasn’t out. The other problem was that sun dials didn’t work as timers. Water clocks were seen mainly in Ancient Greece and Egypt. In Greece, they became most popular in Athens, and many philosophers, such as Aristotle, used them to time their speeches. They were also used to time events such as court dates to make sure that they didn’t run out of time.

Works Cited:

"Water Clocks." National Institute of Standards and Technology Physics Laboratory. Infoplease. Web. 19 Mar. 2016.

"How Does It Work." How Does It Work. Web. 18 Mar. 2016.