[time-nuts] Atom of time

[Dick Moore]

I first encountered the use of "atom of time" when reading "The Cloud  
of Unknowing," a ?13th C? work on spirituality and contemplation  
written by an anonymous English priest.

Best,
Dick


On Aug 22, 2009, at 12:14 PM, time-nuts-request at febo.com wrote:

> Message: 5
> Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2009 13:19:34 -0500
> From: "Max Robinson" <max at maxsmusicplace.com>
> Subject: [time-nuts] Atom of time?
> To: "Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement"
> 	<time-nuts at febo.com>
> Message-ID: <C836B0E4C9404BE59961AA99267FE5AB at BACKROOM>
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
> 	reply-type=original
>
> A recent answer on Jeopardy involved an atom of time.  The clue was  
> "In the
> 16th century this term described 1/374 of a minute.  It wasn't  
> applied to
> matter for another 150 years."  The correct response was " What is  
> an atom?"
> My research on Google for "atom of time" turned up nothing relevant  
> to this.
> Does anyone know what might have been the origin of this number?  My  
> first
> guess was that it was based on gear ratios for the escapement but at
> 6.2333... atoms per second it seems a little fast for the clocks of  
> that
> century.
>
> Regards.
>
> Max.  K 4 O D S.
>
> Email: max at maxsmusicplace.com
>
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>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 6
> Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2009 11:30:53 -0700 (PDT)
> From: "J. Forster" <jfor at quik.com>
> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Atom of time?
> To: "Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement"
> 	<time-nuts at febo.com>
> Message-ID:
> 	<1989.12.6.201.162.1250965853.squirrel at popacctsnew.quik.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1
>
> I don't think it's really a unit of time in the sense we know it.
>
> Atom, from the Greek, is basically the smallest chunk of somthing, not
> divisible into smaller parts.
>
> So an Atom of Time, would be the smallest interval of time, by  
> analogy.
>
> It seems to be more a religeous term to do with revelation theology  
> than
> Physics.
>
> What was the Category?
>
> FWIW,
> -John
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 8
> Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2009 14:12:40 -0500
> From: "Max Robinson" <max at maxsmusicplace.com>
> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Atom of time?
> To: <jfor at quik.com>, "Discussion of precise time and frequency
> 	measurement"	<time-nuts at febo.com>
> Message-ID: <A87C183683224BEF9B66375DCB1DAB40 at BACKROOM>
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
> 	reply-type=original
>
> John asked.
>
> What was the Category?
>
> I don't remember clearly.  It may have been history.
>
> Regards.
>
> Max.  K 4 O D S.
>
> Email: max at maxsmusicplace.com
>
> Transistor site http://www.funwithtransistors.net
> Vacuum tube site: http://www.funwithtubes.net
> Music site: http://www.maxsmusicplace.com
>