“Sam walks by Big Ben at three o’clock, looks up at its face, and thinks, ‘It is now three o’clock’. However, unbeknownst to Sam, Big Ben malfunctioned and stopped precisely twelve hours ago.” So maybe Sam just got lucky? But what would have happened if he’d passed by at 12:55? Such happenstances are examined in […]
Tag: time
Further physics news about whether the past is coming
There’s been further evidence found that, maybe, time does not run backwards. The evidence is presented in this study: “Observation of Time Reversal Violation in the B0 Meson System,” The BABAR Collaboration [J.P. Lees, et al.], arXiv:1207.5832, July 24, 2012. The Economist summed it up in their September 1 edition, under the headline (and subheadline) […]
How do students spend their time?
A new study raises questions: “How Students Spend Their Time,” Andrea L. Welker [pictured here] and Bridget Wadzuk, J. Prof. Issues Eng. Educ. Pract., vol. 138, 2012, pp. 198-206. the authors, at Villanova University, Villanova, Pennsylvania, explain: “An analysis was performed of how students spend their time … the students self-report their use of time […]
Sub-fever-pitch for next pitch drop’s imminent dropping
Low key, steady excitement comes through in this News.com report about the Australian project that was honored with the 2005 Ig Nobel Prize in physics: Pitch drop experiment’s ninth drop is preparing to fall. Fingers crossed the live feed holds Eighth drop fell in 2000 Camera failed at crucial moment Ninth drop due within 12 […]
Time flies – but how quick(ly)?
Many have puzzled over the speed at which time passes – and, in search of a concrete definition, some philosophers have come to the conclusion that it flows at a rate of ‘one second per second’. Not everyone is entirely happy with that seemingly simple explanation however. Take for example Bradford Skow (Associate Professor without […]
A noisy clock, explained at least sort of
If your clock has a lot of noise — which may not be at all the same thing as if your clock makes a lot of noise — telling time can be a bit involved. A fairly new study describes the situation: “Telling time with an intrinsically noisy clock,” Andrew Mugler, Aleksandra M. Walczak, Chris […]
History of the universe, in brief: Twice
A group of engineering students at Purdue University built a Rube Goldberg machine that depicts a history of the universe, in about a minute. (Thanks to Scott Langill for bringing it to our attention.) See it in the videos below. It’s an alternative universe history to Eric Schulman’s classic “A History of the Universe in […]
Happily stuck in time and space
En route from Vancouver to Australia on Dec. 30, 1899, the captain of the S.S. Warrimoo spotted a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. At midnight, he stopped the ship at the intersection of the international date line and the equator. At that moment, the ship was straddling two different hemispheres, days, months, years, seasons, and centuries, all at […]
The hair of Father Time
John Ptak points out that Father Time, though often portrayed during his end-of-year bald phase, was once seen as an unruly-haired fellow: This image proves that even Time itself can have a bad hair day, from time to time. The woodcut image appears as the printer’s mark (of Simonem Colineum, or Simon de Colines) in […]
New bat fellatio study gives insights
A new study helps answer the question raised in Thomas Nagel’s 1974 philosophy essay “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” A team of Chinese and British researchers focuses on one measurable aspect: “Fellatio by Fruit Bats Prolongs Copulation Time,” Min Tan, Gareth Jones, Guangjian Zhu, Jianping Ye, Tiyu Hong, Shanyi Zhou, Shuyi Zhang […]