[time-nuts] clock and cannon at noon story

Brian Garrett mgy1912 at cox.net
Wed Feb 5 00:37:28 UTC 2014


Not if he added leap seconds :)

Brian


-----Original Message----- 
From: Michael Blazer
Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2014 4:22 PM
To: time-nuts at febo.com
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] clock and cannon at noon story

Wouldn't the watchmaker notice that his clock is always a few seconds
fast? If the cannon is a mile away, the watchmaker would be adjusting
the clock so that 'noon' would sound around tea time after about 10 years.

Mike


On 2/4/2014 11:52 AM, Tom Van Baak wrote:
> I suspect many of you have heard clock synchronization stories like this 
> one (there are many variations):
>
> ----------
>
> A chap was on holiday in Gibraltar. The tour guide said that before 
> leaving Gib you had to see two things: The daily firing of the noon day 
> gun on the rock and, down in the town square, the world's most accurate 
> mechanical clock. So the bloke ambles up the rock in the morning, taking 
> pictures of the apes and arriving at the gun just at noon. There are two 
> men in ceremonial uniform stood ready, one next to the gun and one next to 
> a telescope. The man with the telescope checks his watch, looks through 
> the telescope and, at the right second, signals to the other guy who fires 
> the cannon. The gaggle of spectators cheer and as one guy packs up the 
> cannon the tourist ask the man what he was looking at through the 
> telescope.
>   'Oh, from here you can see down into the town square and the world's 
> most accurate clock, which is on the side of the local watchmaker's shop. 
> When that says twelve we fire the cannon.'
>   'Oh, that's next on my list,' says the tourist, looking through the 
> telescope, 'I'm off down there now.'
>   After a pleasant stroll down to the town square the tourist finds 
> himself stood looking up at the clock he had been seen through the 
> telescope. The watchmaker sees him and comes out to say hello.
>   'I hear this is the most accurate clock in the world.'
>   'Yes,' says the watchmaker with some pride, 'It's not lost a second in 
> the last one hundred years.'
>   'That's amazing,' says the tourist, 'how do you measure it?'
>   'Well', says the watchmaker, 'Every day at noon they fire a cannon and 
> the clock is always spot on!'
> ----------
>
> But I do have a serious question. If you have a favorite alternate version 
> of this (from oral tradition, book, or web) please share it with me. It 
> turns out there's some interesting time nuts math in some of them. Contact 
> me off-list since this is a bit off-topic. You know my email: 
> tvb at leapsecond.com
>
> Thanks,
> /tvb
>
>
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