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: t...@leapsecond.com
Thanks,
/tvb
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