On Monday 20 Jul 2009 10:44:23 pm Yoshiki Ohshima wrote: > However, my point of making that clock was that each kid should make > one to understand it. An objective tick-tock is just one way to understand time. It is the kronos time. However, the round clock face stood for a different concept of time - time as an interval between events. This is a much more interesting story to play out in Etoys.
The 12 divisions of a day (and twelve of night) trace back to the need for farmers to predict onset of annual rainy season. Rain leads to floods in the river depositing rich silt along the banks (and ground water) to raise crops. There are approximately 12 full moons between one Rainy season to another and approximately 30 sun rises between two full moons. The same divisions were also applied to day and night. Some cultures (like India) divided day and night into 30 slots each (or 60 slots total) while others divided them into 12 slots each (24 total) and further into 60 minute slices. Some (like Babylonians) divided both day and night into 12 slots. These divisions allowed one reckon and predict the onset of rains. The numbers 12, 24, 30, 60 and 360 became important in math. We continue to divide a circle into 360 degrees (12x30) to this day. The word time itself is from a root word meaning 'to slice, to cut'. The Greek word, kairos means both weather and opportune time. The Sanskrit word for year (varsha) also means rain. Many words in our daily use are tied to this concept of time (hour, minute, temporary, noon, meal, siesta, tide). Of course, 12 moons per year is approximate so an 'extra moon' is added every few years to catch up. This year is one of them, so it is a good opportunity to learn about 'blue moon'. Subbu _______________________________________________ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep