Impress Friends with your Genius!

The number is:

256 247 251 361 !

This number is unique in that it lets you recall the days of the week for any day in 2008. Commit the number above to memory, and you can impress your friends with your impressive logical memory! Knowing this magic number will let you instantly recall the day of the week for any day this year in 2008.

To explain: each number in the sequence above corresponds to the first day of the month. The first digit relates to January, the second to February and so on. The last digit corresponds to December. For example, the 11th digit is a 6, and therefore matches up to November. 6 refers to the 6th day of the week - Saturday. Therefore, from this mnemonic, the 1^st of November in 2008 is a Saturday. With the same logic, the following dates are also a Saturday:

1 Nov
8 Nov (+7)
15 Nov (+14)
22 Nov (+21)
29 Nov (+2

The numbers in-between these dates can then readily be calculated on-the-fly. So remember the numbers 8,15,22,29 too! As an example, the 5^th November needs to have 4 days added. Count forwards from Saturday: Sunday (+1), Monday (+2), Tuesday (+3), Wednesday (+4). So the 5^th November 2008 is a Wednesday.

More examples:
J = January, 1^st Jan = 2 (first digit in sequence) = Tuesday
F= February, 1^st Feb = 5 (second digit in sequence) = Friday
M = March, 30^th Mar = 6 (11^th digit in sequence) = Saturday + 1 = Sunday

256 247 251 361

JFM AMJ JAS OND

J = January
F = February
M = March
A= April
M = May
J = June
J = July
A = August
S = September
O = October
N = November
D = December

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When do we set our clocks back?

There comes a time when some countries set there clocks back to take advantage of the early rise of the sun and the longer days. Daylight Saving Time (DST) has been employed by many nations ever since. There are other nations who used them before and stopped doing so.

There are a lot of questions that arise regarding Daylight Saving time. When do we set our clocks back? Why do we need to set our clocks back? What are the effects of DST? These are just examples of the things that are always questioned about the practice.

A Brief History

Before the invention of daylight savings time, there are a lot of people who have thought about taking advantage of the natural light produced by the sun during seasons when days are longer than the nights. The practice of setting clocks back has been done since the Grandeur of Rome. Benjamin Franklin also expressed his concern regarding this matter while staying in France as envoy of the United States. Although contrary to popular belief, Benjamin Franklin did not invent Daylight Savings Time.

DST was invented by an English inventor named William Willet. Willet shined about the habit of Londoners of waking up late during summer time. Although Willet pursued the passing of a bill of using DST, it was not used when he was still alive. The first country to used DST was Germany. It was employed by the Germans along with their allies during the war.

Advantage and Disadvantages

So why and when do we set our clocks back? DST is employed in the United States starting on the first week of March and Ending on the first week of November. Although the main purpose of the use of DST is to save energy, it was lately observed that this seems to cause the opposite. It was applicable in the past when people usually used candles and the incandescent lamp for lighting purposes. Some countries discontinued using DST when it merited little in their campaign on saving electricity.

Other advantages observed by countries using DST is the decrease on vehicular accidents, health advantages and lesser crime rate although little evidence could be gathered regarding the latter two. But for some, the hassle of setting the clock backwards overcomes the advantage of DST. Time changes are often hazardous to computers, which are very sensitive to changes in the time variable. This is a very huge concern especially when computers are used to do financial transactions 24/7.

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The Units of Time

What the Units of Time Stand For

Physicists point out that time is a physical quantity and it is, in fact, a dimension of the physical world and, thus, must be measurable and, thus, there is the need for the unit of time. On the other hand, philosophers debate that time is just a product of complex mind and is relative to each unique mind.

The units of time that we will be referring to are the ones that science defines.

Who, What and When

In the advent of civilization, the units of time were not as defined as they are today. In ancient times, time was noted only as a matter of day and night. Some tribes and civilization might include dawn, daybreak, noon, and sundown. But commonly, most prehistoric individuals define time in reference to the natural lighting conditions.

There are also some early tribes who measures time with the actions of plants and animal in their surroundings, so it is not unusual to observe that their units of time would be named like “when the roster crows,” “when the wolf howls,” and “when the cricket sings.”

It is fascinating though that the present system used to define the units of time dates back to the early 2000 BC from the Sumerian civilization. (The Sumerian civilization emerged upon the flood plain of the lower areas of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in about 4000 B.C.). The Sexagesinal system, which defines the 60 second per minute and 60 minute per hour, was the product of this civilization.

Other civilizations like the early Egyptians and Greeks only use the hour as their unit of time. This is further proven by the use of the sundial, the hour glass and the water clock.

The Present of Time Keeping

While the present units of time were based on the Sumerian’s Sexagesimal system, the definition of each units of time has been made more accurate. Currently, one second is equated to the length of time that Caesium 133 completes 9,192,631,770 radiation periods. This approximation has been the most accurate as far as time measurement is concerned.

The second is then further divided through the use of the SI system of measure. The smallest measurable unit of a second is the nanosecond, which is equal to a billionth of the said unit. The other units of time like the minute, the hour, the day, the month, and the year are not included in the SI standardization and still follows the Sexagesimal system.

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History of clocks

Want to Learn about the History of Clocks?

“Time is Gold,” as the saying goes. People all over the world value time so much that it is more valued than money. Time runs so fast that sometimes we have a hard time keeping track of it. We use clocks to keep track of time. But how was the clock invented?

History of Clocks - Discovery for Humanity

For those of you who don’t know the origin of the clock, this article may help you to understand how clocks were invented and developed to measure time precisely. Maybe after this article, you will learn to appreciate time even better.

The word “clock” comes from the Latin word “clocca” meaning bell. Clock comes in different types and sizes, and we know that their only purpose is to tell the time. In the ancient times, people rely on the sun as the tool to determine time. They look at the sun as it cross the sky. When the sun is directly overhead, it means noontime. On the other hand, when the sun reaches the horizon, this means either early morning or evening. But this method is, by far, very primitive and inaccurate. With the use of the sun, the ancient people thought of a device that would measure time accurately. The sundial clock is the oldest clock ever made. The sundial clock uses the shadows of the sun to point to the numbers inscribed on the disk that will show the time. Although it can somehow measure/show time, there was one disadvantage of the sundial clock. It only used the sun as its medium, so it was an only used during the day.

Determining the disadvantage of the sundial clock, the people thought of using the water as its new medium to determine the time. So the Egyptians invented the water clock. Its name was “clepsydra.” It is made of two containers, one higher than the other. The higher container has a tube connected to the lower container when water travels, and these containers have marks to tell the time. There water clocks can be used day and night. It was more accurate than the sundial clocks.

Aside from devising a tool that would measure time, they agreed on dividing a year into twelve parts called months. They divided the months into 30 days for a total of 360 days following the circular pattern of 360 degrees (just like the rotation of the earth). Then somebody figured out that they should divide the day into 60 minutes and the minutes into 60 seconds.

Modern Time Tellers

When the period of industrialization took place, the emergence of pendulum clocks and the discovery of the quartz were used to measure time more accurately. Clocks are really essential to our day-to-day activities. So always be sensitive to the time you spent and enjoy every second of it!

About Leap Years

February 29 is an additional extra day on the calendar. Whenever you see this in the calendar, it all means that it’s a Leap Year. So, what exactly is a Leap Year? It is a year that contains extra days for the purpose of keeping the calendar year synchronized with the seasonal year.

Usually, we only have 28 days in the month of February. To synchronize the days of the year, we add one day every Leap Year. To calculate how we can add extra day, it starts to get complicated.

Calculating the Leap Year

The standard calendar that most of the world is using is the Gregorian calendar. With the kind of rule that everybody is using, we can identify that this year is a Leap Year. The standard formula in calculating the Leap Year is that the year must be divisible by four with no remainders on it.

There are exceptions on the rule of calculating the Leap Year. As I said earlier, a year must be dividable by four. If a year is ending with two zeros (-00), which is a centennial year, they must be divisible by four hundred for them to be able to be called a Leap Year. So that means, year 2300, 2200, 2100, 1900, 1800 and 1700 are not included as Leap Years.

Remember that a Gregorian type calendar is intended to retain the vernal equinox, which is composed of about 365.242375 days. This is the reason why a centennial year has an exception because a Gregorian Leap Year gives year duration of about 365.2425 days on the average.

The Rules in Naming the Year as a Leap Year

There are certain kinds of rules to be followed in naming a year as a Leap Year. Before you can add 1 day on the year, you must follow these rules:

1. A year can be divided by four.

2. If it can be divided by one hundred, it can also be divided by four hundred.

A year is not called a Leap Year if the second rule is not followed. It is called an exceptional common year. Following these rules, number of days on the average will be with the following equation:

365 + (((1/4) – (1/100)) + (1/400))

365 + (((0.25) – (0.01)) + (0.0025))

365 + ((0.24) + (0.0025))

365 + 0.2425 = 365.2425

As year passes, new rules will be implemented for us to identify which is which. After a timescale of ten thousands of years, the number of days in a year will change for some reasons. But for sure, we can’t predict accurately the changes.

Article by TopClock
http://www.topclock.co.uk

Ancient calendars used in the past

Ever wondered what devices or methods did our forefathers use in order to tell the date, the year, or the season? Time is very important not only in today’s modern age but also in the past. After all, without a sense of time, the ancient people would not have known how to keep up with the changing pace in the seasons. This brought about the necessity for ancient calendars. Because of these ancient calendars, the ancient people established a sense of time – something that was much needed then and is certainly much needed now.

The Bases for Ancient Calendars

If the ancient people then had no calendars at all, how were they able to create it? The calendar, after all, is such a wondrous and detailed device that just tells dates with accuracy and precision. The question here is how was the calendar developed in the first place? The calendar we use right now is actually a product of the ancient calendars that have been used in the past. As with the roots and foundation of these ancient calendars, we can point to the sky as the bases of the ancient people for creating and developing these ancient calendars. The sun, the moon and the stars were all used by ancient people in order to determine ancient calendars – the passing of a day, a week, and a year.

Ancient Calendars – Determining a Day, a Week and a Month

Ancient calendars before are more accurate than you think. To measure a day, ancient Romans and Greeks used the sun and moon as determinants of a day. As with the measure of a week and a month, it can be determined by the moon’s cycle. In short, the lunar calendar is one of the bases of ancient calendars. Without the changing phases of the moon, the ancient people would not have had reliable bases for telling the passing of a month or even a year.

Ancient Calendars across the World

When ancient calendars are compared from one civilization to another, a surprising commonality is noticeable. The Babylonian’s ancient calendar, for example, uses an alternate counting of 29 and 30 days per month. An additional month is added three times for every eight years. The Egyptian Calendar, on the other hand, based their calendar on the moon’s cycles. If added, the number of days in a year of an Egyptian Calendar is 365 days. The Mayans, also, had a calendar in which there are 365 days. Noticeably, these civilizations have agreed upon, although unconsciously, that there are 365 days in a year.

Article by TopClock (clocks and watches)

Early Clocks - Tracing the Origin of the Most Puzzling Thing in Time

It would probably surprise you to know that clocks are among the earliest inventions ever made by mankind. This claim, however surprising, is true. Time has been such an invaluable concept throughout history as recognized by ancient people such as the Greeks and the Egyptians who knew that time is fleeting and was well aware of it. After all, time is needed in being aware of the changing seasons for cultivation and harvest as well as being aware of night and day.

Recognizing the importance of time brought about the invention of the early clocks in history. Though ancient, these early clocks remain to fascinate people of the modern age because of its ingenuity and remarkable precision.

The Crude Form of Early Clocks

The reason why the earliest clocks can be called crude is because they’re so basic in mechanisms and functions and practically work in a very ordinary yet precise manner. By ordinary, this means that it makes use of natural forces such as gravity and raw solar power. An example of a crude form of early clocks is the sundial. Basically, sundials are composed of a gnomon, which projects the shadow on the next component, the face, which is basically just a round plate. Because the earth is tilting on its axis, the sun seems to move in a clockwise direction, thus, changing the position of the shadow in the sundial. This is a simple mechanism but remarkably excellent in telling what time it is.

Another crude form of early clocks is candle clocks. These are used by priests of different religions in order to indicate the passage of a certain amount of time. This is important because it tells the priest how long has passed from the moment a candle clock is burned until it is fully consumed by the fire. For different religions, this signifies different meanings.

And then there are the water clocks, which must have been the latest of the crude forms of early clocks. Basically, it uses water in order to tell the passage of time.

The Developed Form of Early Clocks

Though it was never really clearly stated, the development of early clocks was said to have taken place either in Europe or Asia. In Europe, no artifacts can be found as to what the structures of the early clocks that have been developed are. All that is left are related writings that claim of a discovery of a more advanced form of early clocks. In Asia, particularly in Muslim states, developed early clocks such as the Elephant and the Castle were developed. These served as symbols of power, more than symbols of telling time.