Jenno’s Ool

Monday, December 27, 2004

Water Clocks and Thermometers

While cruising on MetaFilter tonight I came across a really neat post about water clocks.

The water clock works on three basic principles of physics: energy cannot be destroyed only changed; gravity pulls objects down to the lowest possible level; and water seeks its own level.

These clocks can be from about 6' tall to over 20' tall -- that's a lot of glass blowing and oh-so-precise balancing of the entire system! The pendulums have a 2.22 s period (the time taken for a complete swing) to maintain accurate time keeping.

Seeing these clocks put me in mind of Galileo's thermometer. I've always loved these thermometers that work on the principle of water density. Then again, half the time I think I've chosen science teacher as a career is so that I can play with all the cool toys!

Posted by Jennifer at 6:26 PM | Comments (0)  

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