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Brief Evolution of Time
Time has played an important role for the development of man since the beginning of the first civilization. This importance has been due to the prediction of occurrence of events (for example floods, rain and drought) and also on the daily work like preparing for the time to attack the enemy.
Today, the world is so caught up in time that everybody is trying its best to save time and simultaneously be productive. The mad rush is definitely on and in fact the "Syndrome Not Enough for a 24 hours in a day" is fast affecting individuals today.
With this in mind, man has been trying to develop a time clock, which would assist them in their daily work. This includes even the recording of telephone numbers. Perhaps in the future, there would be an explosion of timepiece, having cellular phone technology constructed into a wristwatch, which would then be easily affordable.
Earlier tools for the time telling have mainly depended on the sunlight, moonlight and water. The Egyptians used the shadow clock to measure the passage of hours by dividing the sunlight into 10 parts with two additional parts representing the twilight hours. The Romans divide time into night and day. Later, the Greeks decided to track night hours using the water clock "clepsydra", which means water thief. In addition, hourglass was also used and it is the first one, which does not depend on the weather condition. The evolution of the clock has occurred so fast that the days modern time telling is now base on modern clocks comprises of a regulator, a power source and a display to show the time. This is evidently seen in mechanical and quartz clock available in the world today. However it must be noted that the 24-hour daily period has been maintained in these clocks for time telling.
For the next millenium, what would be the new time telling factor? Would it be just on the improved time clocks with new and improved technologies or there would be an emergence of new time telling as exhibited in some science fiction shows? It would be easier to improve on the technology but then what if, it would be better for the usage of a "new time" which would revolutionized the whole entire human civilization. In short, are we ready to abolish the 24-hour concept, which we have been using for a long time to opt for the "new time"? What would be the advantages of this new time and how it could change our lives? Since the world has already witnessed a changed a few decades ago when the "International System of Units" was used to replace the old measuring system in order to achieve a "Standardization", does this give us a hope that we would be able to accept this "new time" revolution? Only time can reveal this destiny.
This article was prepared by: Ling Lay Pee & Simon Looi.
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