[time-nuts] radioactive decay rates change? Mr Shortts, a resonate ramble.

[clock trust]

First of all, please excuse the English, I suffer from dyslexia. It was 
great to see the article by Dan Stober. After reading the article, I had 
thoughts on this summers day, flooded with electro-magnetic waves from the 
sun, after heavy rain fall, with the southern hem, in winter time and 
somebody talking on Radio 4 about people trapped in winter time under 
ground,  just to say a few words about a single man, that change time and 
transmission of time signals, and the 20th century. More to the point, what 
makes these great people, what facilitates them to prototype, the good old 
blue peter badges of the future. These kind of resonated with Dans article, 
don't ask me why. For those that wade through the thick soup of dyslexia, 
that make up this article, please excuse the length. If you don't want to 
read it all, please go to the end bit.

Well lets start to push and feel the force that pushes back. Its nearly 100 
years since the Shortts clock was tested by prof Simpson (hope I smelt, 
sorry, spelt that right) in Edinburgh. Its first measured the effect, on a 
pendulum, due to lunar cycles, then the sun over the year and then we are 
told the variation in gravity due to the wobble of the earth. Three of these 
clocks went to the Bell institute and refinement of quartz oscillators 
continued to open the gate towards the electronic age. We had gone from the 
Royal pendulum (1 meter 1 second) to micro seconds. A big jump with massive 
improvements on accuracy, resolution, precision....

The weird thing gravity itself, with an expanding universe. Its the joining 
force that acts locally, trying to collect back mass systems. I know most 
adults have difficulty with this, they understand buoyancy, but gravity seen 
as just belonging to big things like planets. We do start are a very early 
age, to unpeel this understanding. Guess what the teaching aid is, a model 
of a shorts clock. Its an experiment that can run for many years, and called 
the race4time. (Please if you still have your pendulum master clock in your 
school keep it, grab it and get it in the physics lab).

Every time we do the workshop on the clock, I have to say, 'Hang on, the 
pendulum, this tiny mass system, is influenced by something 670 million 
miles away', one student literally shouted out, 'space is not empty, its a 
fabric that allows for transmission of energy, gravity and 
electromagnetic...'. Just a great way to start 101 questions that make 
think. One student explained that per meter squared, we can get up to 90kw 
of energy, from the sun, which of course has equivalent mass, with 
electro-magnetic waves from the sun. Its a love story of resonance that 
continues, if you push there must be something pushing (forces in pairs, 
good old Newton) against, in the same way transmission of any energy, 
depends on the 'soup' its transmitted in. With the purest environment, that 
constant we use for the limit of everything, C.

If you do one thing next year, tell your students about the marvelous man 
Mr. Shortts, a humble railways (civil engineer) that put in to production 
the master-slave clock (two pendulums one free in a vacuum, the other 
synchronized to it), that opened the door to the Quartz age, electronics and 
the computer. Apparently in 2020 we would have reached the zenith of the 
electronic (solid sate) development, looking for a new clock, or concurrency 
through parallel processing, perhaps time for Occam and the transputer age?

We are going to need a new age of math's, physics, electrical, electronic, 
chemistry.....A new drum to beat against. Or what ever the new 
multi-disciplines will be, to enable the ever increasing length of the 
journey of discovery to be transferred to new minds, the future. With 
science being inclusive, rather than separate, sure this is possible. This 
week, two very bright students, have turned away from physics, one went to 
University and found a harsh environment, the other barely a year into his 
course. This is a great shame or do we want this survival of the fittest, 
these where bright students, it was the environment they had problems with. 
Again inclusion as early as possible, gives broad understanding to 
population, those that want to follow the journey further, the future 
scientist. Without getting political, in a money orientated world, most of 
the jumps between principle to production, by good communicators, able to 
get the funding. So it could be survival of those that can speak the gab?

If we look at the past, from Harrison with the chronometer, Lord Grinthorpe 
with gravity arm, Hope Jones and the synchronome (radio transmission of time 
signals soon after Marconi, the Horophone and good old Brillie master clock 
system and effile tower) and Mr. Shortts free pendulum. The jumps, to 
resonating strips of metal, to quartz, atomic, light and nuclear, we have 
gone from the heavens to the elementary particles, almost in 100 years. (By 
the way the development of the Shortts clock was delayed, he had to serve in 
the first world war). What is so breath taking, given the opportunity, these 
normal individuals with the Great Britain Island mentality, change the 
world.

I wonder who will be developing the new clock/oscillator/synchronizer for 
the 21st Century? In ever increasing transmission and electro magnetic 
interferences, from eco LED lights, that should be run of low voltage power 
supplies to cars that will need charging, but need an inter-changeable 
battery system, park and swap, to vehicles that optimize the roads we all 
use, we push and push harder. But as we know with the up and coming 
Olympics, this is not a linear push, the nearer you get to physical 
limitations the harder it becomes to push, not even Top Gear can change the 
fabric and fundamental physics of space, well not yet. This is the realms of 
imagination, but the most wonderful thing, is as soon as are parents had 
some fun, we became part of science, its all inclusive, we make it 
controlled (simpler) with white coats and labs, experiments, but science 
surrounds all of us, you push against your pedals, with your bike, the 
mixture of refined fossil oil and air, though the throttle of your car, in 
the jet engine, those great hair dryer in the ski, to the humble hovercraft, 
we keep on pushing.

So science is inclusive, its the very fabric of space-time. The big 
challenge now is to close the loop on consumerism, designs, where products 
go back to manufacture, looking for the exact materials to repair, reuse or 
recycle, to make again in a sustainable way. Its a complex world, not an 
open ended one with assumption of no limitations, to ones with sustainable 
loops. Again without getting too political, the slight tilt of the earth, 
giving counter seasons from north to south and as we explain to very young 
children with a model of a solar system, the goldilocks story, we are not to 
close, warm, or to far away, we are just right in the middle. It would be a 
shame to waste this! Whether the Earth can cope with us, we are using 
materials that took millions of years to form, great for plastic, but just 
burning them seems daft? Are we made as hatters, mixing up nappies, sanitary 
towels, old tomatoes with materials that can be recycle. The composting of 
one gives heat, gases and compost, the other valuable materials.

I was told by a good control engineer, all constants are assumptions, until 
proven other wise. Again the lovely article by Dan, reasoning this point, if 
its pushing out and at a certain velocity, something is pushing back. We did 
a lovely session, 'do atoms die', 'why are all electrons and photons' the 
same. Its the discovery, the magic, the treasure trail, sometimes simple 
fact and figures don't resonate will all children. The beauty of the 
mechanical age is its visible, and the core reason we set up the center, we 
have water meters that teach calculus! It would be interesting to know what 
the great scientist did as children? Well lets ask this big question to this 
group now:

END 
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1st Response

1) Motivation: What would you list the reasons you followed the path to 
becoming a scientist and the ability to teach it?
2) Choices, Creative Opportunities: Where would you say the cross-roads 
where?
3) Effort and Reward: What/Who encourage you, what hurdles?
4) Consequences: What would you have done if these hurdles to high?
5) Future Motivation: You got through all the hurdles as scientist and now 
teachers of science, how?

Then read this, no cheating.

2nd Response. This is to map a journey. It may simply not apply to you. 
That's fine, but we would still like to know. We want to know if it started, 
the progression of this. WHO, WHAT, WHY, WHEN, HOW as your childhood 
developed. You may wish to avoids the clumsy attempt to structure a set of 
questions and just give your account. That's fine. We are not here to 
measure just to see if their is a link between taking things apart as a 
child and the development of mapping skills, how things work. The accounts 
of your childhood experiences can be un-named, but would be a shame to be 
so. We want to develop the www.reclaimfun.com website and we need to show 
the link and have some great stories that inspire.

1) Were you able to take items apart when you where young?
1a) Who did you do this with and when did it start?
1b) How did this progress?
1c) Where were the places that this took place?
2) Were your family/friends (please state) ones that allowed you to explore 
and take the risk of creative opportunities?
3) If you did take things apart, did you discover how they worked?
3a) Who assisted with this understanding or what sources of information
4) Did you make things from the things you took apart?
5) Have you ever thought of the process of taking something apart as a 
child, fundamental to your passion and career development?
5a) Do you still take things apart, if you stopped when was this?

Obviously, would be nice to get some replies, but please do this using 
contact at clocktrust.com . We are trying to find out the 'importance of taking 
things apart'. Please feel free to pass this on to the great and the good. 
Its a simple question we feel at the very core of inventorship, those 
creative opportunities. If you have read the main article, just one real 
question, where you allowed to take things apart as a child? By reference to 
Mr. Shortts and tolerant family, his house, like mine full of dis-assembled 
items, waiting for the creative opportunity of them becoming something else. 
One thing Mr. Shortts had, was a lot of washing machine bits, apparently, 
but he witnessed the first controller of a potential automatic washing 
machine, in 1920, the synchronome bell ringer, with programmable clock and 
two motors, for Westminster/Winchester/wittering chimes and strike motors, 
they could have been equally wash and spin. Sometimes you have to push in 
un-know terriritory, but their is always something pushing back.

Very best wishes Paul
Dr Paul Strickland
www.timemachinefun.com