In the 21st century, nothing is easier than knowing the exact time. But in ancient times it was much more difficult to do this, and different civilizations had their own devices for measuring and determining time: accurate to hours and minutes.
Sundial
They are considered one of the first in world history, and are mentioned in a number of historical chronicles of ancient civilizations. For example - in Egyptian manuscripts dated 1521 BC. Structurally, the sundial was a vertical pole and a dial, on which a shadow was cast. As the sun moved across the sky, the shadow shifted and indicated the approximate time on the numerical marks.
This way of telling time has been used by the Egyptians, Romans, Chinese, Hindus and Greeks for centuries. But it was too imperfect to survive until later times.
Water clock
A water clock, structurally representing one or several vessels, had a higher accuracy and the ability to work at any time of the day. Flowing drop by drop under the action of gravity, the water each time measured the same interval of time, depending on the capacity of the vessel. The first mention of this device is found in the chronicles of the Roman politician Scipio Nazicus, who installed the first water clock in Rome in 157 BC.
Hourglass
The only ancient invention to measure time that has survived to this day. Today, the hourglass is known to everyone, and represents two conical vessels connected by a thin neck. Passing through it under the action of gravity, the grains of sand count the hours and minutes, and to restart it, it is enough to turn the device upside down with the filled vessel. Mentions of the first hourglass are found in ancient chronicles of the 2nd century BC.
Fire Clock
In terms of age, inventions can compete with sundials, and differed significantly in design among different civilizations. For example, among the Chinese, they were sticks of wood powder and incense. They were set on fire and measured the time during which the fire would reach the next mark (notch). Such clocks existed in China already 3,000 years ago, and later were replaced by a more advanced device: sticks (spirals) on which metal balls were strung. When the next section burned out, the ball fell on the metal base and “beat off” the time. In Europe, fire clocks appeared much later - with the invention of candles, and they measured time by burnt (melted) wax.
A completely different approach to the chronology was in the Jewish countries, counting from 3761 BC (the day of the creation of the world), and adding one more month to each leap year. Today, this method has been almost completely superseded by the Gregorian calendar, which counts from the Nativity of Christ.
The names of the months familiar to us and the celebration of the New Year on the night of January 1 came from Ancient Rome - after the introduction of the Julian calendar by Julius Caesar. Up to this point, the Romans divided the year into just 10 months and 304 days, and celebrated the New Year in early spring - in March.
Interesting facts
It is generally accepted that there are 24 hours in a day, although in fact the Earth turns around its axis in 23 hours 56 minutes and 4.09053 seconds. There are other interesting facts about time that not everyone knows about:
- The Earth's rotation is gradually slowing down, and the length of the day is increasing by 1.7 milliseconds every 100 years.
- All celestial bodies are observed from Earth with a delay - due to the limitation of the speed of light. So, we see the Sun with an 8-minute delay, and the closest star to the solar system - Alpha Centauri - with a 4-year delay.
- The most accurate clock in the world is strontium. They give an error of 1 second every 15 billion years.
- At the time of the release of the first part of the Star Wars movie, France still used the guillotine, which was canceled only in 1981.
- White whales live so long that there are still individuals on Earth born before the writing of the novel "Moby Dick, or the White Whale" by Herman Melville in 1851.
- The smallest unit of time is the yoctosecond, which is a fraction of a second followed by 22 zeros after the decimal point. It is with such speeds that protons, neutrons and other elementary particles of matter move.
Speaking of time, it is worth noting that it did not exist at all at the time of the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago, but there was only matter. At least, this follows from the theory of relativity. Be that as it may, subjectively for a person, time exists, and has always existed, and is of great importance. To measure and determine it, dozens and hundreds of devices were created - the more valuable, the higher the accuracy they demonstrated.
