BBC Focus Magazine

[farbuckle]

Is a stopped watch more often correct than any working one?

[M Paul Lloyd]

Technically yes, twice a day it shows exactly the correct time, whilst one that runs even really accurately will struggle to ever be in sync' more than once a week.

[farbuckle]

Thanks for the reply Paul.

My question is probably not valid. Isn't our measurement of time
only an approximation? Is there such a thing as a 'correct clock'
anywhere in existence? Even if there is we have to adjust it
periodically (a second added today for example) so can even
a 'master clock' be considered correct at any point in time?

I suppose a stopped clock would be in sync with a 'master clock'
twice a day, which I was already aware of and in fact that was
the inspiration for my question. Maybe I've answered it myself
in the previous paragraph (scratches head).

[Shadowwolf]

Isn't our measurement of time only an approximation?

A very close approximation that works for us but an approximation none-the-less I think, one that was initially predicated on the amount of time it took to spin once on Terra's axis and how long it took to complete one Sol orbit. There wouldn't be any master clock as such because the divisions and labels are our creation that we use to measure time.

[farbuckle]

Good answers, thanks chaps!

I won't ask what time is

[MikeG]

Technically yes, twice a day it shows exactly the correct time, whilst one that runs even really accurately will struggle to ever be in sync' more than once a week.

Excellent response there MPL. Very out-of-the-box type thinking. Just one problem though. Even though this stopped watch shows perfect accuracy twice a day, you never know when it is showing correct time. So that pretty much defeats the purpose.

[Shadowwolf]

I won't ask what time is

Oh feel free, however, there is the most recent similar topic Time? and if you do a search you'll find more about the board.

[M Paul Lloyd]

Technically yes, twice a day it shows exactly the correct time, whilst one that runs even really accurately will struggle to ever be in sync' more than once a week.

Excellent response there MPL. Very out-of-the-box type thinking. Just one problem though. Even though this stopped watch shows perfect accuracy twice a day, you never know when it is showing correct time. So that pretty much defeats the purpose.

Actually MikeG it's not my 'thought' but something from way back, one of those trick questions that seemed popular back in the day. Thing is time is a bit of an abstract concept and subject to all manner of permutations of relative velocity and mass and location, so deciding at which two points in any 24 hours when that stopped watch might show the correct time may differ from one day to the next anyway.
Possibly...........?

[farbuckle]

I won't ask what time is

Oh feel free, however, there is the most recent similar topic Time? and if you do a search you'll find more about the board.

Thanks for the pointer. I have used the board several years ago
and I've been buying Focus since the first issue and still have
them all stashed away. I was hoping they would release an index
of all the articles because a library of Focus magazines is pretty
inaccessible without one (maybe they don't want us to see how
often their predictions were wrong . I did ask back then for an
index and I believe they were considering it but nothing materialised.
'nothing materialised' <----- I sense another question coming on...

[M Paul Lloyd]

Ah yes the index.

They are by their very nature rather difficult to compile retrospectively and truth be told no-one saw any reason to start something that would be entirely voluntary and therefore unpaid.

I have compiled such lists for other, somewhat older and less significant, publications in the past but sadly I never got around to doing one for Focus, in my defence I have been rather busy.

[farbuckle]

Ah yes the index.

They are by their very nature rather difficult to compile retrospectively and truth be told no-one saw any reason to start something that would be entirely voluntary and therefore unpaid.

I have compiled such lists for other, somewhat older and less significant, publications in the past but sadly I never got around to doing one for Focus, in my defence I have been rather busy.

Does the entire collection exist in editable digital format? If so perhaps software
exists that will automatically index it, at least to a form that can be more easily
parsed by humans. If only images of pages exist OCR is probably not quite there
yet but may be in a couple of years. Either way it's almost certainly best to wait
until technology can do this because it would be an enormous task to do manually.
I'm certainly not volunteering!

I do think instant access to old Focus articles has value, even to the scientific
community. Maybe the task could be outsourced to a university that has an
interest in the area of digitisation research. A potential PhD topic perhaps.

[M Paul Lloyd]

Does the entire collection exist in editable digital format?

Sadly not.

I do think instant access to old Focus articles has value, even to the scientific
community.

You are most welcome to have a go yourself.

[farbuckle]

You are most welcome to have a go yourself.

If only I had time

[ChrisH]

The stopped clock would show the correct time every hour if you considered all the different time zones, plus another two times as India has a time zone half an hour different from those either side.

[M Paul Lloyd]

A very good point ChrisH.

[farbuckle]

The stopped clock would show the correct time every hour if you considered all the different time zones, plus another two times as India has a time zone half an hour different from those either side.

Of course if we consider every relative time zone in a potentially infinite
universe my stopped watch is correct all of the time