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Showing posts with the label time

Daylight Saving Time

      Last night (technically at 2:00 am), we went through the annual ritual of turning the clocks forward one hour. Actually we only changed the alarm clock at bedtime; we got most of the rest of them in the first half hour after we got up. (I will probably be changing various watches for the next couple of weeks.) It was pretty cold this morning – we should have changed the thermostat along with the alarm clock. Live and learn.       I never thought of this before, but in the Southern Hemisphere they turn their clocks backward on the same date we turn ours forward, and vice versa.       TVs, DVRs, computers, etc. change themselves overnight. I didn’t get up at 2:00 to make sure they did it correctly, but they were all changed by morning, so I guess it worked OK.       During his time as an American envoy to France, Benjamin Franklin, ahead of his time as usual, anonymously published ...

Big Numbers

Lately we have been hearing some very large numbers bandied about – so large, in fact, that I am not sure we understand just how large they really are. Some examples: Bill Gates’ net worth is $40 billion, the population of China is 1.17 billion people, the U.S. national debt is limited to $12.1 trillion, etc. How can one picture that much of anything? Let’s imagine we have a machine which can take us back in time as far as we want to go. We can set it for any amount of time we choose, go back that far, and see where we land. Suppose we start with one billion seconds. Will we open the door on last week, last month, five years ago – When? Close the door, set the dial, push the button, and when the shaking stops, open the door. Welcome to April, 1977! Jimmy Carter became president in January, Star Wars will open next month, a gallon of gas will set you back 64 cents, and Elvis has about four months to live. Suppose we set the dial for one billion minutes and try again. Will we m...