Time Measurement By Periodic Events

Evolution of Time Measurement

Time measurement is a complicated task and is always a challenge for us, how do we measure a
minute, an hour, a day. Our ancestors noticed that there were some periodic events that never
changed, like the changing of seasons, rising and setting of the sun, etc. These were the first
attempts mankind had ever made to measure time, it was pretty simple, and the measurements
they got were accurate for those times, the first-ever device used to measure time in the daytime
was the sundial.

Sundial

The oldest sundial was found in Egypt dating back to 3500 BC, a sundial has a dial plate with
hour lines engraved on it and a gnomon stick which sticks out at an angle, as the sun moves in
the sky it casts a shadow on the plate and shows the time, but it works only in the daytime, so
people had to find other ways to measure time at nighttime. A candle clock was used by ancient
Chinese to measure time at nighttime; a candle with uniform dimension was used to measure
time as the rate at which it would burn for every hour was constant, so markings were made for
every inch or so to measure time.
 Measuring time using a candle

Notice how periodic events like rising and setting of the sun were used for time measurement,
Can you say which periodic event should be used to measure a month?

 a) Phases of the moon.

 b) Movement of stars.
 c) Flowing of water.
 d) Changing of seasons.
It takes approximately 29.5 days for the moon to change its phase from one full moon to the next
so it’s the closest our ancestors could get to measure a month,
 Phases of moon

And a year was measured by the changing of seasons, it would take exactly one year for the
monsoon to return. So people counted the number of days in one year this way, measurement of
a year was very important because we rely on rain for our crops hence knowledge about rain was
vital for agriculture.
As technology advanced, we devised more and more sophisticated methods to measure time, a
simple pendulum was used, as long as the weight of the bob and the length of the pendulum is
unchanged, the pendulum would oscillate at a constant rate.
 Pendulum clock

What mechanism does your wristwatch use for time measurement? Modern clocks make use of a
piezoelectric crystal called quartz, you must have read quartz written on a wall clock while
checking the time, well this crystal vibrates at a specific frequency when voltage is applied to it,
so it is designed in such a way that a frequency of one hertz is obtained from it, this is used to
measure time.
In this way periodic events can be used to measure time, here is an assignment for you, what
periodic events can you find around your other than the one mentioned in this article to measure
time, make a note of them and find a way to measure accurate time using it. This could be
helpful for your next science project.