Episode 129 - What is Time?
Published on Thu, 15 Apr 2021 00:54:25 -0700
Synopsis
Andrew and Everett, hosts of the "40 in 20" watch podcast, have an engaging conversation about the concept of time. They discuss the origins of time according to scientific theories like the Big Bang and Einstein's theory of relativity. They explore time travel, calendars (Gregorian and lunar), measuring time accurately using atomic clocks and leap seconds, and the historical significance of the marine chronometer in naval navigation. The discussion touches on the abstract nature of time as a human construct and how our understanding and measurement of it have evolved over centuries.
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Transcript
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Andrew | Hello fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. This is 40 in 20, the watch clicker podcast with your host, Andrew and my good friend Everett here. We talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Everett, how are you? |
Everett | Just killing it. Do it so good. Uh, drinking some, drinking some scotch. |
Andrew | Ooh, me too. |
Everett | What are you drinking? |
Andrew | I'm drinking a oak cross compass box. It's actually going to be my other thing this week. I got it as a gift and it is just delightful. |
Everett | Nice. It's a, it's an attractive box. |
Andrew | It is. It's a lovely box. It's a lovely bottle. It's kind of a Tiffany blue with gold accents. It's very good. |
Everett | Is it, uh, is it like a, a Sherry note or peaty? |
Andrew | Uh, a little bit. It's, it's more sweet and fruity. to me, I think, but I'm getting a little bit of peat, a little bit of heat. It's, it is unlike any other scotch I've ever had before. I can't, I have nothing to compare it to. |
Everett | All right. |
Andrew | Fair enough. What are you, what are you drinking? |
Everett | I'm drinking, I'm drinking Laphroaig. I'm not, I'm never quite sure how to say that. Uh, Laphroaig, the select, you know, I think it's like roughly a 12 or a 13 year. Um, And you know, super peaty. It's an Islay. So yeah, a really strong peat forward flavor. |
Andrew | Yeah, it can be a little mean. It's one of the only cigars I've ever had that stands up to a cigar. Sure, sure. More scotches I've ever had that stands up to a cigar. That's the one. |
Everett | I knew what you meant. |
Andrew | Yeah, I knew what you meant. So we're not local today, though we're across the street. I can actually probably see you where you're at, but I have a bit of a cold. So in an abundance of caution, we're recording remotely this week, which I don't like. So yeah, that's what we're doing. |
Everett | I don't know what you're doing. It's a little odd, uh, recording remotely, uh, when you're across the street, like I had to bring you stuff in order to record. |
Andrew | Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's certainly weird. |
Everett | But I, you know, it's, it's a good time for us to be taking reasonable precautions, right? |
Andrew | Yeah. Yeah. An abundance of caution. Cause even if this is just a cold, I don't want you to get it. It sucks. |
Everett | Yeah. I don't want to get, I don't want to get a cold anymore than I want to get something worse. |
Andrew | Exactly. |
Everett | Well, that's not true. I do want to get a cold more than I want to get other things. |
Andrew | Yeah. Herpes, for example. Oracle. So tell me about your weekend. |
Everett | Oh man. I went to, I went to central Oregon. The, you know, we've got in, in Oregon, we've got everything from the Pacific ocean, uh, to these, you know, what most people, I think, think of Oregon, these dug for lined river valleys, uh, all the way to high desert. So. I went out to the high desert portion of Oregon for a run. I did a, uh, I did an ultra marathon this weekend and it was fun. It was good. It just went really well. And, uh, yeah, I had a good time and had fun. |
Andrew | How many miles is an ultra marathon or was your ultra? Because I know that ultra is kind of a, anything north of a marathon. |
Everett | Yeah. So that's right. Ultra marathon is, is anything north of a marathon. Um, This is called the Peterson Ridge Rumble 40 miler. Um, but I, I think because of COVID protocols, the course might've been just shy of that. So, uh, approaching 40 in any event. |
Andrew | That's a long way to run on purpose or on accident for the matter. It's just a long way to run. |
Everett | Yeah. I don't think, I mean, I think it'd be pretty hard to run that far on accident. |
Andrew | Yeah. Yeah, I think so. So how are you feeling? How's the body feeling? You, I mean, you were kind of jello-y. You seem to be getting around just fine. |
Everett | Yeah. You know, actually I feel really good. Um, the, that first, uh, that first evening you're dealing with, you know, actual, uh, trauma, uh, you know, to your skin and flesh and, uh, that was painful. And then that second day. Most of that, you've gotten through the worst of that. That second day was just a high degree of lactic acid. And then I'd say by Tuesday, uh, by yesterday, I felt pretty good. And today it's like, I'm just sore. It just feels like I had a long workout or something. |
Andrew | That's kind of amazing. |
Everett | Just that the body comes back so quick. |
Andrew | Yeah, that you're bouncing back so quick. And I know a big part of that is because you've really trained for this, but the fact that you could just go run 40 miles and be like, eh, you know, three days later I'm back at it. |
Everett | Well, you know, it is, I think it is have to do with the training, uh, primarily, right? You, you, you get your body used to that sort of event and it just processes the chemicals and show must go on as it were. So, um, And I also think, you know, you take care of business, right? You take Advil and you stretch and you, you know, gently roll out your muscles and, uh, sat in your hot tub for 45 minutes, you know, those kinds of things. |
Andrew | Did you break your running streak as a part of recovery? No. Or have you run since then? |
Everett | Yeah, no, I, I've run every day. Yeah. Uh, that's insane. And actually. I think that that's a huge part of my ability to recover, right? My body is just used to continuous miles. So I, on Monday and, uh, on Monday I went just a really slow, like get through it mile. And then yesterday I went out and felt good enough to run. I think I did like a 750 mile, uh, just around the corner. And then, uh, today will be a slightly longer. Uh, slightly longer than that. I'll probably do three today. That's a stupid. But enough about running. No one cares about that. |
Andrew | That's just crazy, man. That's a, it's a feat of human strength. |
Everett | Yeah. I mean, I'm proud of you, buddy. That's a big accomplishment. It's why you do it, right? There's no good reason to run 40 miles. So it's, it's all about, like you said, it's that feat, it's that accomplishment. So yeah, no, I'm proud of it, obviously. |
Andrew | If, if I got free entry to the Nathan's hot dog eating contest at the conclusion of a 40 mile run, I think I might attempt to the 40 mile run to get to the Nathan's hot dog eating contest. |
Everett | You know, that's the weirdest thing is, uh, as much as you'd think that after that you'd want to eat, it really messes your stomach up. Uh, the transition from energy burning. Uh, glycogen and, and direct carbohydrates to fat burning does, does work to your gut. And it took about eight hours before I could eat anything. I mean, you have to eat because you know, you need it, but it's nothing sounds good. |
Andrew | I just want to see Joey, the jaws chestnut in person. That's what I want. So. All that being said, congratulations. Yeah. Thank you. Heard about me. So let's dive into it. And today we're going to do a big one, but also kind of a nothing one because what is time? |
Everett | Right. What is time? |
Andrew | Yeah. So today what we're going to do is we're going to, we're going to do what the philosophers of, of your have attempted to do. We're going to talk about time, how we understand time, how time has been used, the importance of it. And it seems like a reasonable conversation to have because we have all demonstrated ourselves to be absolutely obsessed with time, or at least the reading of time, or at least at the very least carrying a time reader on our wrist and spending exorbitant amounts of money. to acquire them and exorbitant amounts of time in thinking about them, purchasing them, researching them, learning about them. |
Everett | So. The public prideful demonstration of time. |
Andrew | Yeah. Yeah. So. |
Everett | Well, I think, you know, to start this conversation, we should go back to the beginning and, and we say that often on this show, but in this instance, We mean very literally the beginning. Time began 13.799 billion years ago. |
Andrew | I understood it to be about 26,000 years, actually. |
Everett | Different strokes, uh, in an event called the big bang. So this is what physicists think, right? Everything we're going to talk about today, uh, caveat with a grain of salt. This is what. modern accepted science says. So there are times where we say, where we might vacillate on a point. Uh, and there are times where we might declare something to be the truth. Like time began 13.799 billion years ago by way of the big bang. Take it with a grain of salt. This is the physicists current working model. |
Andrew | I'll accept that. |
Everett | So the big bang. The big bang. What was it? It doesn't really matter for today's conversation, but essentially it is the beginning of everything. And it's theoretical, right? Nobody had a camera. Nobody had their iPhone in horizontal or vertical orientation. |
Andrew | Or night mode. |
Everett | That's right. That's right. But it is when the first event that we can measure happened. So we are able to measure. cosmic radiation from that time period, from that single event. And we can't measure anything older than that. And the current working theory is that that is the beginning, that time can't be infinite because A, the lack of radiation from prior to that period, that event, the Big Bang, and B, because of a lack of light from dead stars. If time were infinite, we would be filled with light from dead stars. |
Andrew | So working... It also has to make time linear. That's another big part of that. |
Everett | That's right. |
Andrew | So continue, sorry. |
Everett | Yeah, no, that's it. So working model, time began dang near 14 billion years ago. And from there, it moves forward. And, and only forward. time only moves forward again this is what our physicists tell us time is by definition a progression from past to present and then to future and only in that direction although interestingly physics problem physics equations almost always and universally operate the same forward or backward |
Andrew | I mean, it's a constant law. |
Everett | It is a constant law. And there is actually a law. There is a law that's going to help us out here. |
Andrew | Do it. |
Everett | The second law of thermodynamics. So our current time space continuum theory are based on the law of thermodynamics. And the second of those is that entropy or disorder, the state of becoming in disorder, remains constant or, more likely, increases. We can't go back to order. The disorder entropy will always increase or at the very least stay constant. So momentum. Momentum. The universe is under a state of momentum and time is the constant factor of that state of momentum, that entropy. Uh, and we can't go back to where we've been before. |
Andrew | I think the interesting thing about that time being a factor in it is that it's less a factor in it than our perception of it. Cause time matters, but it's time is entirely a construct and a perception that we use to define and attempt to understand these enormous ideas. Cause it's simple. It's something that we can wrap our minds around. |
Unknown | Time. |
Andrew | Yeah. |
Everett | Right. Well, tell me more. |
Andrew | Well, so, so think about it. When we look at how time has been used throughout history, it has been used for agriculture in the way of planting crops. It's been used for navigation in the way of maintaining a bearing on the seas. And I think, uh, When you look at tools that, and we'll circle back to this in a little more depth later, but when you look at tools like the, um, Oh, goodness. What was it called? A marine Quran chronometer that revolutionized. Naval capabilities and shipping capabilities, because it provided such a precise measurement of time and space. If you could figure out your. The amount of time it takes to travel from one known to the next known, you can determine how fast you're going, how much time you have left and how much time is behind you. And so it's all just this construct when you look at it. |
Everett | And so the Marine chronometer is a fantastic device. And I think we might talk about that a little bit later, uh, specifically what a Marine chronometer is, how it works, or maybe we talk about it now, but it is simply as. Having mile markers on the freeway, you can determine a lot of information, right? You can determine how fast you're going. Assuming you have a speedometer, uh, in your means of travel, you can determine the accuracy of your speedometer based on a measure of time over that distance. It's, it's the same, it's the same theory. We can do a lot with time, uh, described as perhaps the fourth dimension. |
Andrew | And interestingly, When you look at the way we've measured time, it is generally broken down to hours, minutes, seconds. And then greater than that, days, weeks, months, years. And there's two really distinct ways of measuring calendars. And we use a solar-based calendar, basically globally. the world's accepted calendar, a Gregorian calendar, the Gregorian calendar. And there's no real reason for that. But in the 1700s, the, uh, the British monarchy said, Hey, y'all, you're going to use this. Okay. That's what we're going to use. But it's, it's surprisingly accurate. We lose one day every four years. |
Everett | Yeah. Well, well, Let's talk a little bit more about time, because I think, I think we, we need to spend some time with calendars, uh, with leap seconds and leap years. Uh, but let's talk, let's talk a little bit more about time itself, right? Okay. Because, because the idea of time is something that is innate, literally innate to human beings. We've got circadian rhythms. Um, this, this, deeply entrenched, inescapable, natural observance of time. Our human cycles are based on it in a really fundamental way. And so your point that the construct of time is artificial, I think that was your point. |
Andrew | It's something we've built to answer. |
Everett | It is purely an analog. |
Unknown | Yeah. |
Everett | To these natural phenomenon. So, so classic physics says, classic physics said that time as we knew it prior to the late 19th century was, was constant, right? That, that time, a second, a day was a constant thing. And thereabouts in the late 19th century, that all kind of changes, right? |
Andrew | It does. |
Everett | You know, there's a couple things that happen. One, this fella named Al, Albert, Mr. Einstein, to some of you, this fella develops these theories of special and general relativity, which there's a lot to relativity theory, but it essentially distills down to the idea that time, depends on the frame of reference of the observer, of you, of me, of you and you and you at home or in your car, that your frame of reference defines time, which I think is pretty powerful. |
Andrew | Yeah. Now, does that mean that time travel is a thing? |
Everett | Well, so yeah, let's talk about it, right? Time travel, is time travel a thing based on Einstein's theories of relativity? And, and the answer is probably yes. And in fact, more so than probably, definitely yes. |
Andrew | And I don't think you even need that high level of science to explain time travel. I think you need a 30 rack of bush light. A bag of Doritos and Netflix and the day is gone. |
Everett | Some magic mushrooms, some magic mushrooms could really help too. Yeah. Well, you know, the, the most fun for me, the most fun sort of realization in preparing for this episode is not only does time travel theoretically exist, it actually exists. And more so there are people on earth today. who have time traveled. There are people in space right this very second who are time traveling. So there's this theory of time dilation that's connected to Einstein's theory of relativity. Time dilation, for instance, occurs as one approaches the speed of light. So essentially, the faster you're going, the slower time becomes relative to everything else, the theory of relativity. So moving clocks versus clocks that are stationary move faster. Clocks on a jet run faster or if you're in the position of the clock, slower. And astronauts literally skip ahead in time when they come back from The International Space Station. So yeah, time travel. We can do it. We do it. We do it today. Time on the ISS- We don't. Well, we don't, but some people do. That Arizona governor. Time on the ISS, on the International Space Station moves 0.01 seconds slower than time on earth. So approximately- And why is that? One second every 100 years. You know, I think that the deal is wrapped up in this incredibly complicated theory. And I don't think I have any shot in hell at being able to provide a reasonable explanation for it today. |
Andrew | I mean, they're orbiting at a significant rate of speed. |
Everett | Oh yeah. So it's got to do with their speed. That's, that's a hundred percent of what it is. So for a hundred years on the ISS, you would time travel one second into the future. |
Andrew | into the past? |
Everett | Uh, into the future. So say you were... Time is slower. |
Andrew | Oh yeah. You would have gained a second. You personally against time gained a second. |
Everett | Okay. So no, there's no going backwards, right? Because of entropy. So, so there's these, you know, theoretical light speed trains, right? You could get on the theoretical light speed train that orbits the earth approaching the speed of light. You can't ever get there, right? And you theoretically could get on that thing, zip around the earth and then stop. And you'd be in the future, right? Go around a hundred times or whatever. And you're two days in the future, go around a thousand times. You're 10 years in the future. You know, uh, I'm making this stuff up obviously, but as you approach the speed of light, everything you slow down. And skip ahead. |
Andrew | It's crazy. So now we just need a light speed train. |
Everett | Yeah, that's, that's right. You know, there's a, there's another, I don't, I think we're already kind of in the weeds on time travel, but, uh, for a watch for a watch podcast, sorry guys, fuck it. Uh, but there's another interesting factor here. So gravity also slows down time. So what we notice is that higher orbit satellites age faster. because they're affected by less gravity. So it's counterproductive. And they figured out what the sweet spot is. Roughly 3,174 kilometers above Earth's surface. So the gravity at 3,174 kilometers is the sweet spot to negate the effects. |
Andrew | Or the best orbital life cycle of a satellite. |
Everett | That's perhaps, yes. Yeah, that's right. Time. Time, man. |
Andrew | So, we've talked about the idea of time. Time travel? Bet you didn't think we'd ever get there. Let's talk about calendars. So, like we talked about earlier, we use a Gregorian calendar. And a Gregorian calendar is 365 days. The real year is 364 days, so many hours, and so many minutes. It's not quite a full 365 days. That is the measurement of time it takes for the sun to orbit around the Earth. Yes, I said sun around the Earth. Earth is the center of the universe. |
Everett | Isn't it 365 and roughly six hours? Something like that. Okay. It's off. It's 365 plus, and that's the relation between |
Andrew | uh you know the earth's the earth's rotation is not exactly synced with the earth's orbit around the sun right and also it's cleaner to have it in full increments of days that's a little it's a little bit easier to measure that that's right we we can we can be a little rough on a couple of these so that's the cause for the leap year but everett i want you to dive into leap seconds for me |
Everett | Yeah, you know, I think leap seconds and leap years are connected in some important ways. But essentially what they are is a correction of our own experience with the sun based on the rotation of the earth. They correct for that, for the variable between that and our experience with astronomical events. Uh, I saw, you know, one great way to pin this down has to do with the, um, the, the solstice, right? So the longest day of the year is theoretically a fixed portion, but that, that changes over time. You know, I looked at, there's another calendar, the Baha'i faith use their own calendar and they don't observe leap years. Uh, but rather they add a day. as necessary to make it so that the solstices land on the right days. So, oh, solstice is going to be on the wrong, is going to be on the wrong day this year. We need to add a day. So, so I think that that's kind of what connected it for me. Like, oh, there's astronomical events that happen regularly because we're orbiting the sun and it's connecting those to our own experience with our view of the sun due to the Earth's rotation. |
Andrew | And our own understanding and measuring techniques for that. |
Everett | So a leap second is what you may be expecting at this time, an adjustment to universal time, UTC, coordinated universal time, to adjust for the decay or the entropy of Earth's orbit over time. They don't happen regularly. The last one was June 30th of 2016. I think that there's another one planned for this year. They're always on June 30th or December 31st. Solstices. That's right. No, that's not solstices. That's not solstices. There have been 27 of them since the creation of UTC. They are not constant, and they're actually unpredictable. There are all sorts of things that can affect the Earth's rotation. Geological events, things that happen here, things that happen outside of our planet can affect it. So they sort of add one when they need one. |
Andrew | So how is that affected by, say, atomic timekeeping? |
Everett | Well it's interesting. |
Andrew | Or is it is it the that is the reconciliation between precise timekeeping and astrological events and the actual time versus the way we measure it. |
Everett | You know I think I think it's a good time now to kind of go back to talk about how do we get our time right. What is a second. Right. So historically Seconds have been based on the amount of time in a solar day, right? So the amount of time between the sun's highest position in the sky. That is variable though, and it's not just variable in the sense that there are seasons. It's variable in the sense that The Earth's rotation slows and changes and is not precise. |
Andrew | So, I mean this, I was reading something this, this about a month or so ago that talked about the adjustment of the Earth's rotation on its axis being a significant part of what we're already doing in the way of climate change. |
Everett | Yeah, that's right. That's right. I mean, there's all sorts of things that happen that just happen, right? You know, things that we affect, things that we don't affect. that make it so it's non-constant. So this was really until the late 19th century, uh, science kind of just accepted this imprecise measure and thereabouts, uh, thereabouts, uh, well, late 1700s, early 1800s, these people started, these scientists started kind of coming up with proposals and thoughts really in the late 19th century, folks get their shit together. And they start observing these variances. And they come up with a period of time to bridge this gap, you know, this gap between the variables of solar time, and the actuality of, you know, astronomical time. And the theory that the first Proposal that gets really wide international acceptance is called ephemeris time and again Maybe maybe not pronouncing that right. I think you're right on It is a period of time that's a specific division of a year Being defined by the orbit of the earth around the Sun In 1960, so about eight years later, we get rid of ephemeris time. We don't really get rid of it, but we replace it with cesium time, or what we'd call atomic time today. So these scientists, it takes them about eight years, and doing scientist things, they figure out that the radiation When a cesium particle transitions from two hyperfine ground cesium beds, replicates, in some increment, right, it's some multiple of this process, this radiation period, replicates as closely as human abilities could measure in 1960, this a second. So they adopt the, gosh, what is the group? I want to say it is international, I don't know. There's some international science group that adopts this. |
Andrew | Who all accept that atoms decay at a constant rate? |
Everett | That's right. Right. So they accept this and cesium time thus becomes the standard. And today the cesium second is the second. We still use this measure. And it's still very, very, very close to what we need it to be. |
Andrew | Could we ever get closer? Do you think it would be like global chaos to find an atom that decays at a more appropriate rate to reflect the earth's orbit around the sun? |
Everett | Well, so in regards to your second question, could we find a decaying atom that more closely replicates? I don't know the answer to that. Can we get closer? I think the answer is yes, almost certainly, and really is a matter more of when than if. |
Andrew | And should we? |
Everett | Well, I think that perhaps increasingly folks think we should. So interestingly, talking about leap seconds, There are a growing number of... I don't know who they are. Time lobbyists? |
Andrew | There are a number of folks... They are a well-known, well-funded, and well-connected lobby group. |
Everett | There are a number of international groups, countries, who are moving to abolish leap seconds. So this leap second we just talked about is problematic today. in a way that it wasn't problematic in 1960. And that has to do with our increasing, increased reliance on computer-based technology. So day trading, um, computer software, uh, this is the sort of Y2K bug problem, right? There are leap year bugs. There are, uh, Computers don't deal super well with leap seconds. |
Andrew | Because it's a weird thing. Because it's a weird thing. That's why the entire West Coast of the United States has voted to do away with daylight saving time. Because it's a weird thing and unnecessary thing to do. Let's keep time constant. |
Everett | And really, I think that's what it comes down to. You've got this group of folks who are saying, there's just no reason for this. Pretty much no one. on earth observes actual universal time with any sort of significant bearing on their lives. |
Andrew | And why couldn't it be wrapped up into leap years? That's this leap year we move forward. We add a day and six seconds. |
Everett | Yeah. You know, I, I think that the thought is that because of the way science is moving is that in By the time leap seconds make an appreciable difference on our lives, you know, say not. So, I mean, we're talking about 27 seconds since the introduction of UTC. So by the time that makes a difference, an appreciable difference on our lives, we'll have developed a new way of measuring time anyway. |
Andrew | At least a better one that doesn't require us to. Randomly add a second to the day. |
Everett | Yeah, and and hard to say if it's better, you know, it is certainly It is certainly a thing that we Take for granted right that time is a construct that's in and of itself analog Well, yeah, especially when we have all these |
Andrew | When we have our phones to tell time and smartwatches and every single digital clock, every appliance we have has a timer on it, has a clock, it's no longer, I think we take it for granted. |
Everett | Right. |
Andrew | Yeah. |
Everett | Yeah. Well, and there's no reason not to. It is perhaps, it is perhaps the most reliable form of measurement that humans have come up with. And not only is it, not only is it reliable, it is awesome. And I don't mean awesome, like super cool dude. It is literally an awesome innovation. Our mastery and understanding of time with everything that affects time. You know, if you think, There was a moment in preparing for this episode where the disconnect between the earth's rotation and the earth's orbit around the sun became patently obvious to me. It's a thing that I've never really considered. Those things are not connected in any meaningful sense. |
Andrew | But that they're occurring in parallel with one another. |
Everett | Not even in parallel. |
Andrew | In conjunction. I bet that they're occurring at the same time. |
Everett | They're both just things occurring in the world that we've synced to such a high degree that once every three or four years, we've got to add a second. That's awesome. |
Andrew | And a day. Awesome. |
Everett | Yeah, that's right. That's right. Once every four years, we add a day. Once every few years, we add a second. It's awesome. |
Andrew | But with that. When you look at the comparison between a Gregorian and a solar calendar, a solar calendar doesn't have leap years. |
Everett | Yeah. So tell me about a solar calendar. |
Andrew | So a solar calendar uses the new moon to new moon to measure months. |
Everett | And this is not a, this is not a lunar calendar. This is a solar calendar. |
Andrew | No, no, sorry. A lunar calendar. A lunar calendar. because we're using a solar calendar in the way of a Gregorian calendar. But a lunar calendar uses new moon to new moon, which is about 28.5 days. Sometimes it's 29 and some change. We're not going to get real precise here. The problem inherent with new moon to new moon months is that you can't track seasons because Those new moons don't coincide annually. They're not, they're not based on a, on the full rotation of the earth around the sun. So every year you move a little bit, right. And a little bit, right. And a little bit, right. Until you finally reach your starting point again, because the lunar calendar is shorter than the solar calendar. |
Everett | So there's no way to say winter is roughly from. You know, December 1st. |
Andrew | Yeah, exactly. So that's why Ramadan occurs throughout the year. Every year it's a different period and you'll see it in your Google calendar that Ramadan occurs on whatever day and it ends on whatever day. And every year it kicks slightly to the right to account for the fact that they're using a lunar calendar to track these holidays. and these celebrations. |
Everett | That's crazy. It's crazy. Again, something I would take for granted, but yeah, and it makes sense. And you're right. That is the inherent problem with the lunar calendar. |
Andrew | It's also an exceptionally accurate way to measure the passage of time. It just doesn't do a good job in measuring the Earth's orbit around the sun. Right. |
Everett | That's right. Which is, Which is the thing that we want to be measuring for consistency's sake. Almanacs. Uh, you know, uh, our ability to, uh, have harvest festivals, uh, on a regular occasion or whatever. We, we humans want our time pass to be connected to astronomical events. |
Andrew | When is spring to sow all of your crops and whatnot. |
Everett | And not necessarily astrological events, but also astrological events. |
Andrew | Yeah, right. Like you want to have a Virgo. I don't know. |
Everett | Well, let's talk a little bit about the marine chronometer because this is a pretty neat device. |
Andrew | Yes. Let's. So this is the life's work of a scientist named John Harrison. And when I say life's work, I don't mean like he worked on it for decades. Dude worked on it for 31 years. That is a true life's ambition. |
Everett | Yeah, that's a life's work if there ever was one. |
Andrew | And it revolutionized naval navigation, which then played into aerial navigation because it's effectively the same thing. Now with the introduction. of this tool. It allowed for the booming era of the age of discovery for the, the, the Euro world. And it was invented in 1761. So we have a premier navigational tool hitting the oceans in 1761. So the biggest thing in measuring your naval position is time against space. But the problem is, how do you know where you are? You know how long you traveled. So what he did was he combined all of these other tools that sailors were previously using in the way of sextants and the way of nocturnals and packaged it All into a clock. |
Everett | Yeah, that's right. For all intents and purposes, a clock with a balance wheel. I mean, this has got things that this has got clock components, watch and clock components. |
Andrew | It's it's got all of it. It is. I mean, it's big. Yeah. So it's a typewriter. |
Everett | Yeah. Typewriter side. And an interesting, and an interesting, an interesting complication, I think we could call this. |
Andrew | Go into it. Tell me more about it. |
Everett | Well, so, uh, it's got an escapement and the escapement allows, uh, recording really of two different things, uh, or allows the user to accomplish two, two different things. First, it allows a fractional recording of oscillations. So a very specific measure of time and it at the same time supplying really, really tiny amounts of energy to the timekeeping device to counter friction loss. Uh, which all in conjunction with observation. of the things around you allow you to navigate, to literally circumnavigate the globe without any other points of bearing besides what's in the sky. |
Andrew | And how far you've traveled. |
Everett | That's right. |
Andrew | Cool stuff. |
Everett | Yeah, indeed. Uh, it is worth mentioning that the marine chronometer comes after clocks are already in the world, right? So this isn't the first timekeeping device, but it is the first device that I know of that is making a connection between time and your ability to navigate our globe based on things we can observe. It is a culmination, literally, of all of these ideas that we're talking about today, useful in a practical manner to accomplish an everyday semi-pedestrian goal that contains no other, or that is achievable by no other reasonable method. Yeah. It's pretty cool. |
Andrew | It's cool. |
Everett | Andrew, do you think that there's any chance we can accomplish more today by way of describing time? |
Andrew | I don't think so. I think we've done a pair, a fairly poor job of it. |
Everett | I think you, I think you don't give us enough credit. |
Andrew | Perhaps. Oh, I think we've accomplished our goal. We've had a meaningful discussion. about what is time. |
Everett | Oh, man. This is either going to be your favorite or your least favorite episode of 40 in 20. I can guarantee it will be one of those two things. |
Unknown | Perhaps. |
Andrew | But you'll have listened and you'll have enjoyed a beer with us and hanging out with us. |
Everett | Andrew, other things. We've got the sneak preview. Other things go. |
Andrew | So I have the oak cross compass box from a scotch whiskey maker. It is a blended malt scotch whiskey. And what's interesting about this company is that they use American and French oak barrels and they transition their batches from one set of barrels to the next throughout the aging process. So they are imparting new |
Everett | Did you die? |
Andrew | I dropped the box and I coughed. It's a thing. So they're imparting new flavors into the scotch by way of the barrels throughout the aging life cycle. And this bottle is in the like 50 to 70 dollar range depending on your state's taxes. They've got a whole line of scotches. The next bottle up from what I understand the average age is 25 years even though it's all blended scotch. Um, that's the average age of the next bottle up bottle. This is 25 years. Um, but that's just, that's how they do very Johnny Walker blended blended Scotch whiskey maker. And it's delightful. It's unlike any other Scotch I've ever had. It's florally and bright, but it's nice and hot on the back. It's almost oily. It almost coats your mouth. Um, it's very, very delightful. |
Everett | I'm a little jealous now that I didn't get some of this. |
Andrew | Well, I mean, it'll survive until next week, provided that I also survive until next week. |
Unknown | Gosh. All right. |
Andrew | Everett, what have you got? |
Everett | So I've got a show. I feel like it's been a little while since I've talked about a show on the show. |
Andrew | It's been like two weeks. |
Everett | Fair enough. It's long enough. I started a new show with my wife. Her name's Kim. And it is not the type of show Kim usually recommends. And she said, hey, I'm interested in this. I'm interested in the show. You should check out the trailer. I look at the trailer and I'm like, yeah, this sounds awesome. Sort of like a sci-fi dystopian pandemic show. The theme is this group of friends, internet friends, who only know each other by way of like forum conversations. And then like a BBS messaging thing. The show's called Utopia. It's based on a 2013-ish British series by the same name, Utopia. And so they've remade this. Sort of like the office or whatever. I Haven't seen the British version. I've only watched now. I think the first six episodes of Season one which is all that's available now John Cusack Rainn Wilson a number of other actresses actors and actresses some of whom you may recognize But but really Rainn Wilson and John Cusack are the big big stars and it I have bad news for you my friend tell me it wasn't renewed for a second no oh man that's bad and when I when I googled to make the show notes it says it wasn't renewed for a second season I'm sorry that's too bad because it is fantastic it is fantastic uh it's sort of feels very comic book-like and also the main item of import in the show is a comic book. It is wonderful. |
Andrew | I'll check it out. Really? Well, knowing that my heart will be broken. |
Everett | Really, really excellent. That's too bad that it didn't get picked back up. |
Andrew | Yeah, we'll see. That's just what I'm reading on the Google. You never know. We'll see what happens. Cause it's Amazon. So you just, you just really never know. |
Everett | You know, if there's enough interest, they sell the rights and someone else picks it up. Uh, |
Andrew | Yeah, it'll be a Netflix original. |
Everett | I hadn't heard about it when Kim brought it to my attention, which makes me think that it's not getting a lot of buzz. I have been totally, totally enamored by it. There's a few things that have been a little like me, but generally speaking, totally enamored by it, really enjoying it. |
Andrew | I'll check it out. |
Everett | Hey, thanks you guys for joining us for this episode of 40 in 20, the Watch Clicker podcast. If you want to check us out, you can do so. On our website, watch clicker.com. We've got watch reviews, general horology articles, and every single episode of this podcast. You can check us out on Instagram at 40 and 20 at the watch clicker. Hey, if you want to support what we're doing here, you can do so at patreon.com slash 40 and 20. That's where we get all the support for hosting, uh, hardware All the things we need to make this show and to continue the website to run. Don't forget to check us out next Thursday for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. |
Unknown | you |