Time is a familiar but complex concept for humans. It affects everything from our daily routines to the functioning of machines to our memories and the movement of celestial bodies. Historically, humans have come up with different ways to measure time. With the passage of time, new discoveries and the demands of human lifestyles improved the measurement of time.
Sundials to Seasons: Ancient Timekeeping Evolves
In ancient times, people depended on the sun to measure time. He observed that the Sun appeared to rotate in the sky, although it was later discovered that this was not due to the Sun's rotation, but to the spin of our Earth. However, according to the requirements of that era, it was useful and sufficient for humans to organise their lives. Although this method was not perfect due to the slightly changing path of the sun each day.
But there was more to learn from the Sun's movements. Ancient humans saw that the path of the sun not only changes every day, but also that there is a pattern within this change over a long period of time, and this pattern is linked to the changing seasons. This observation gave humans the concept of measuring years. It became a complete cycle of seasons and a very important part of agriculture and planning.
Biological Clocks to Hourglasses: Measuring Time
Our own bodies also change over time. Age-related weakness in the body is also a measure of time. We can also gauge the passage of time from the flow of our memories, but at the same time, our brains have a biological clock that not only makes us feel hungry or sleepy at certain times, but also unconsciously for our daily routine. Some make internal changes. This internal clock helps regulate our daily activities, although it's not perfect either.
In some periods, the sand flow technique was also used to measure time, in which sand was dropped through a fine hole and time was estimated by the amount of sand dropped. It is called hourglass. According to an estimate, this technique was also used in ancient Greece.
From Sundials to Quartz: The Evolution of Clocks
The invention of mechanical clocks made a significant advance after the time was determined by observation of the sun. These watches use springs and gears to move the clock hands around the dial. Some metals have properties such that increasing or decreasing the force makes little difference to their elasticity. Mechanical clocks were made using this feature.
Later quartz watches were invented. Quartz is a special type of crystal. When a pressure is applied to them, they vibrate at a certain frequency. This is called the piezoelectric effect. It is very easy to convert this generated oscillation into time by measuring it through an electronic circuit. This method gives more accurate results than mechanical clocks. And then it was also the beginning of the digital age. The first such clock was experimentally introduced in 1927.
For highly accurate time measurement as required in scientific research, cesium atomic clocks are used. These clocks measure time by counting the vibrations of cesium atoms, which vibrate more than 9 billion times per second. These measure incredibly accurate time. In general relativity, gravity's effect on time is measured by such a clock. This watch was first introduced in 1955 and was recognized as an international standard in 1967.
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