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

[Max Robinson]

I don't have any of the toys I had as a kid because I was always taking them 
apart to see how they worked.  Most of the time I couldn't get them back 
together and my dad wouldn't put them together for me.  He said "you took it 
apart, you put it back together".  When I got a little older I was more 
careful in how I took them apart so I could put them back together.  Then I 
started tinkering with clocks.  Dad taught me how to remove the escapement 
so the hands would really fly.  One of the first things I did was to put a 
tinker toy wheel on the hour hand shaft and run a string belt to the wheel 
of a toy tractor.  That was my first home made wind-up toy.

The tiny electric motors used in slot cars didn't come along until I was 
fully grown.  Who knows what I would have made if they had been available 
when I was 10.

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

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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "clock trust" <contact at clocktrust.com>
To: "Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement" 
<time-nuts at febo.com>
Cc: "Kyle Bosworth" <gmemdf7 at yahoo.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2010 4:42 AM
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] radioactive decay rates change? Mr Shortts,a 
resonate ramble.


> 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 
>BIT----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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
>
>
>
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