Time's Pendulum: From Sundials to Atomic Clocks, the Fascinating History of Timekeeping and How Our Discoveries Changed the World

Barnett, Jo Ellen

ISBN 10: 0156006499 / ISBN 13: 9780156006491

Published by Harcourt Brace/Harvest Book, 1999

About this Item

Seller Inventory # mon0000000783

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Time's Pendulum: From Sundials to Atomic Clocks, the Fascinating History of Timekeeping and How Our Discoveries Changed the World
• Publisher: Harcourt Brace/Harvest Book
• Publication Date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0156006499
• ISBN 13: 9780156006491
• Binding: paperback
• Condition: Fine

About this title

Synopsis

A perfect balance of science, history, and sociology, Time's Pendulum traces the important developments in humankind's epic quest to measure the hours, days, and years with accuracy, and how our concept of time has changed with each new technological breakthrough. Written in an easy-to-follow chronological format and illustrated with entertaining anecdotes, author Jo Ellen Barnett's history of timekeeping covers everything from the earliest sundials and water clocks, to the pendulum and the more recent advances of battery-powered, quartz-regulated wrist watches and the powerful radioactive "clock," which loses only a few billionths of a second per day, making it nearly ten billion times more accurate than the pendulum clock. A tour of the discoveries and the inventors who endeavored to chart and understand time, Time's Pendulum also explains how each new advance gradually transformed our perception of the world.

About the Author

Jo Ellen Barnett has had a life-long fascination with clocks and timekeeping. Time's Pendulum is her first book. She lives in New York City.