Not if he added leap seconds :)
Brian
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Blazer
Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2014 4:22 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] clock and cannon at noon story
Wouldn't the watchmaker notice that his clock is always a few seconds
fast? If the cannon is a mile away, the watchmaker would be adjusting
the clock so that 'noon' would sound around tea time after about 10 years.
Mike
On 2/4/2014 11:52 AM, Tom Van Baak wrote:
I suspect many of you have heard clock synchronization stories like this
one (there are many variations):
----------
A chap was on holiday in Gibraltar. The tour guide said that before
leaving Gib you had to see two things: The daily firing of the noon day
gun on the rock and, down in the town square, the world's most accurate
mechanical clock. So the bloke ambles up the rock in the morning, taking
pictures of the apes and arriving at the gun just at noon. There are two
men in ceremonial uniform stood ready, one next to the gun and one next to
a telescope. The man with the telescope checks his watch, looks through
the telescope and, at the right second, signals to the other guy who fires
the cannon. The gaggle of spectators cheer and as one guy packs up the
cannon the tourist ask the man what he was looking at through the
telescope.
'Oh, from here you can see down into the town square and the world's
most accurate clock, which is on the side of the local watchmaker's shop.
When that says twelve we fire the cannon.'
'Oh, that's next on my list,' says the tourist, looking through the
telescope, 'I'm off down there now.'
After a pleasant stroll down to the town square the tourist finds
himself stood looking up at the clock he had been seen through the
telescope. The watchmaker sees him and comes out to say hello.
'I hear this is the most accurate clock in the world.'
'Yes,' says the watchmaker with some pride, 'It's not lost a second in
the last one hundred years.'
'That's amazing,' says the tourist, 'how do you measure it?'
'Well', says the watchmaker, 'Every day at noon they fire a cannon and
the clock is always spot on!'
----------
But I do have a serious question. If you have a favorite alternate version
of this (from oral tradition, book, or web) please share it with me. It
turns out there's some interesting time nuts math in some of them. Contact
me off-list since this is a bit off-topic. You know my email:
[email protected]
Thanks,
/tvb
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