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When were clocks used for the first time in science?

VincePee September 08, 2021 at 07:43 4300 views 18 comments
Time has been mechanized already by sundials. These nails and chains that are banged in and put around time have been increasingly refined to accumulate in the advent of the atomic clock. So-called Natural units were even invented. Without mechanized time the world would have looked very different. Maybe we have some kind of marshmallow minds. Maybe we could better wear aikhornnuts on our wrists as Krznaric puts it.

When were the first mechanized timekeepers used in science? Was Galileo the first one? Did this use further science a lot? So newer means and more precise keepers could be constructed?

Comments (18)

javi2541997 September 08, 2021 at 07:57 #590624
Quoting VincePee
When were the first mechanized timekeepers used in science?


I think it was the Babylonian time system the first clockwork or timekeepers ever created. They used to manage the time according to the sun.
Check out: The Babylonian Calendar

The beginning of the month in the Babylonian calendar was determined by the direct observation by priests of the young crescent moon at sunset after the astronomical New Moon. This custom is remembered in Judaism and Islâm with the principle that the new calendar day begins at sunset.
TheMadFool September 08, 2021 at 08:57 #590634
Reply to VincePee I'm sure it had something to do with accuracy and standardization - nonmechanical clocks were too unreliable and the units varied from region to region. Not completely sure.
Olivier5 September 08, 2021 at 09:41 #590639
Quoting VincePee
When were the first mechanized timekeepers used in science? Was Galileo the first one? Did this use further science a lot?


I am aware of the importance of mechanical chronometers for navigation around the world and the explorations of Vasco de Gama, Columbus and others. The only way to calculate one's longitude was to compare time zones: if where you are, the sun reaches its zenith X hours later than in Lisbon or Madrid, then it follows that you are at longitude Y. And the only way to do this reliably was to have precise chronometers.
SophistiCat September 08, 2021 at 09:45 #590641
Reply to VincePee https://www.google.com/search?q=When+were+clocks+used+for+the+first+time+in+science%3F
TheMadFool September 08, 2021 at 09:50 #590642
Quoting VincePee
Time has been mechanized already by sundials. These nails and chains that are banged in and put around time have been increasingly refined to accumulate in the advent of the atomic clock. So-called Natural units were even invented. Without mechanized time the world would have looked very different. Maybe we have some kind of marshmallow minds. Maybe we could better wear aikhornnuts on our wrists as Krznaric puts it.

When were the first mechanized timekeepers used in science? Was Galileo the first one? Did this use further science a lot? So newer means and more precise keepers could be constructed?


Now that I think of it, what about the earth, the moon, and the sun itself viewed as one giant timepiece? It's mechanical alright and measures time accurately enough. The first organisms to use this colossal chronometer were those who optimized their biology to the light and dark of days, the warmth and cold of seasons. :chin:
VincePee September 08, 2021 at 10:21 #590647
Quoting TheMadFool
Now that I think of it, what about the earth, the moon, and the sun itself viewed as one giant timepiece?


Nice idea. It always gives you the right time when we look at it from far away. Maybe we should gauge all atomic hours wrt to that giant clock.

I have heard about waterclocks in ancient Greece.
TheMadFool September 08, 2021 at 10:33 #590652
Quoting VincePee
Now that I think of it, what about the earth, the moon, and the sun itself viewed as one giant timepiece?
— TheMadFool

Nice idea. It always gives you the right time when we look at it from far away. Maybe we should gauge all atomic hours wrt to that giant clock.

I have heard about waterclocks in ancient Greece.


What puzzles me is that cycles, the very essence of time keeping, is ubiquitous at atomic, planetary, solar system, and galactic scales but there's no evidence of the universe itself being cyclical in some way or another; au contraire, the universe seems to be literally exploding, with "pieces" (galaxies) flying away from the "center" in every conceivable direction. What's up with that? Just a thought.
unenlightened September 08, 2021 at 10:50 #590656
Not the first, obviously, but still interesting...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jantar_Mantar,_Jaipur
TheMadFool September 08, 2021 at 11:08 #590658
Quoting unenlightened
Not the first, obviously, but still interesting...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jantar_Mantar,_Jaipur


:up: An eye opener for me.
180 Proof September 08, 2021 at 11:27 #590662
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_clock
• 2nd millennium BCE water clocks
• 7th century CE water clocks with gears
TheMadFool September 08, 2021 at 12:13 #590674
Reply to 180 Proof

Quoting Heinrich Heine
The history of Immanuel - The Königsberg Clock - Kant’s life is difficult to describe. For he neither had a life nor a history. He lived a mechanically ordered, almost abstract, bachelor life in a quiet out-of-the-way lane in Königsberg, an old city at the northeast border of Germany. I do not believe that the large clock of the Cathedral there completed its task with less passion and less regularity than its fellow citizen Immanuel Kant. Getting up, drinking coffee, writing, giving lectures, eating, taking a walk, everything had its set time, and the neighbors knew precisely that the time was 3:30 P.M. when Kant stepped outside his door with his gray coat and the Spanish stick in his hand.
180 Proof September 08, 2021 at 12:37 #590682
Deleted User September 08, 2021 at 13:27 #590693
This user has been deleted and all their posts removed.
Olivier5 September 08, 2021 at 14:25 #590703
Reply to tim wood Thanks for the precision. Indeed this development came way after Gama and Columbus. My mistake.
Wayfarer September 09, 2021 at 08:58 #591107
Quoting VincePee
When were the first mechanized timekeepers used in science?


Ever heard of the Antikythera machine? It’s surely one of the most astounding discoveries in the history of archeology.

The instrument is believed to have been designed and constructed by Greek scientists and has been variously dated to about 87 BC, or between 150 and 100 BC, or to 205 BC, or to within a generation before the shipwreck, which has been dated to approximately 70–60 BC.


Nothing remotely comparable was to be devised until at least 1500 years later, during the Italian Renaissance.
VincePee September 09, 2021 at 10:20 #591125
Reply to Wayfarer

Astonishing! I put a star under your comment! I heard about a hydra-something, but never of this one!
Agent Smith January 17, 2022 at 18:16 #644324
Solar clocks (sundials)/Water clocks [math]\rightarrow[/math] Analog clocks (pendulum/spring/quartz) [math]\rightarrow[/math] Digital clocks [math]\rightarrow[/math] ?

Digital clocks are more faithful to the true nature of Cronus than its predecessors (analog timepieces)!
god must be atheist January 18, 2022 at 01:33 #644522
Reply to VincePee

When were clocks used for the first time in science?

Most probably at noon. It was easiest to set the clocks at noon. The sun was at the Zenith position and that was a dead giveaway. Then everyone synchronized their first clocks.