The Clock Project

How can you measure time accurately without a clock ? If your time

measurements aren’t very good, how can find meaningful patterns in your data ?

• 500 years ago, this is the problem Galileo faced when he wanted to learn about motion.

• Physicists still face the same problem today. Their clocks are

accurate now down to nanoseconds (.000000001 seconds), but that’s still just barely good enough for the things they’re trying to measure, like electrons moving at nearly the speed of light.

Your Job

• Make a clock capable of tracking time accurately.

• Use only materials like those available to Galileo.

• No electricity, but you could use a battery in place of a block of wood to hold something use.

• You could use plastic in place of leather, or a rubber band in place of sheep sinew.

Creativity will be as important to your grade as accuracy

• You are probably NOT going to stumble upon a completely NEW way to measure time.

• Humans have been working on this problem for a lonnnnnnnnng time.

• But you can put an interesting creative twist on it.

• Don’t bore us.

• Your clock should be accurate to

• plus or minus .5 seconds in 15 seconds. (14.5 to 15.5 seconds)

• Without looking at a watch, you’ll tell me “start” and “stop” while watching your clock.

• I’ll have a stopwatch, and if your clock falls in your time window, success !

• You may try again, but each trial will lose points. Get it right the first time.

• You may have most of the period to set up & test, but if your clock isn’t tested during the period, there’s no more class time.

No clock on due date = zero.

• Due Tuesday, October 8th

Clock Paperif your handwriting is illegible, you’d better type it.

• Due one week later, & should include • Drawing of your clock & another, completely different clock

• Analysis (done with arrows on the drawings) of good & bad points of each

• The story of your struggle, including who you blame for all your problems

• Could Galileo have used your clock (or one like it) to measure the speed of a ball rolling down a ramp ? Of a falling ball ? Probably not. Why? Describe 2 types of moving things or events that your clock WOULD be GOOD at measuring….