I was surprised recently to see a sundial that has a relativistic time dilation correction. There is a dial by "Atelier Tournesol" in the hamlet of Les Vigneaux, Vallouise, Haut Alpes. It is a triangular North east facing vertical declining on the old presbytery across from the church clock tower with a pair of corner VD dials. Above the dial is the equation "delta tau = square root(delta t -((V(t)/c))). Text does not render it very well but in looks like relativity to me.
The dial, dated MCMLXXXIX, has both classical and republican hour markings (decimal hours) so someone has had fun with this dial design. Picture available on request. SaF catalogue # 0518002. Regards, Roger Bailey -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of anselmo Sent: May 30, 2005 1:02 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Relativistic sundial Dear all, Everybody knows the story of a salesman that, after having been travelling at a very high speed, discovers that his wrist-watch is delayed respect the rest of the world's, isn't it? But what if his wrist-watch were a sundial? Obviusly it can't be delayed so... what has happened? Anselmo - -
