Monday, January 20, 2014

How is time determined?





You'll probably say this after reading the title: “Time is measured in seconds you dumbass”. Just to clear your doubts about the dumbass thing, I know that time is measured in seconds, minutes, hours and on and on. But I'm not talking about the SI unit of measuring time here. Look at your watch. Check the time right now. How is it determined what the is time as shown by your watch. Let’s say the time is 9:00PM, but why is it 9PM right now? Well, because our watches say so. But why does our watch say that its 9PM? How does it know that right at this moment its 9PM?

Well actually, Time is measured or determined by observing the Earth’s movements relative to the sun. One complete spin of the Earth on its axis takes a day. And approximately 365.26 spins (days) make one complete revolution around the sun. This one revolution makes up one solar year. Units of time smaller than a day such as hours, minutes and seconds are then measured using clocks. Weeks, months and years are accordingly measured with the help of calendars.

Daily Fact: The AM and PM used to divide 24 hours of the day into two parts actually mean something. AM is short for the Latin phrase ante meridiem meaning ‘before midday’. And PM is short for the Latin phrase post meridiem meaning ‘after midday’.

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