I am studying a course called “Light, Sound & Time”, and this is my third Action Project, which is in the time section. It consists of developing an original time telling device and explaining its purpose and the way it works through an animated presentation/video.
This is the script to my video:
I am studying a course called “Light, Sound & Time”, and this is my third Action Project, which is in the time section. It consists on developing an original time telling device and explaining its purpose and the way it works through an animated presentation.
My time telling device is called the painting candle clock. It is made of metal, candles, paint, and some measuring paper.
As you can see in the picture, it consists of a bag of paint tied to a nylon string, which is finally attached in a series of connections to two candles, which are held at a 80 degree angle by a candle holder attached to the wall. The candle holder has two metal plates placed vertically on each side.There is two pieces of paper below the clock also placed in an 80 degree angle that have lines drawn with time measurements. Finally, there is a pair of metal bowls beneath the candle holder where the liquid wax falls into for recycling purposes. The candles are lighted, and as they melt the nylon string slowly detaches from the hot candle. The bag of paint that is tied to the nylon string drips very slowly from a small hole into the measured paper below. Given that the nylon string is attached in a series of connections to the two candles above, after the candles have melted a bit the nylon string will detach from one candle and hang from the other candle beside it. The metal plates will prevent the bag of paint from swinging, and the bag of paint will start dripping on the other measured paper below it. This process will happen several times until both candles are completely melted. This way, we can read how much time has passed since the candles were first lighted by looking at where the paint drops from the paint bag are falling in relation to the measuring paper below.
A 5m x 2cm candle in a temperature of 30 degrees Celsius with humidity of 70% takes exactly 24 hours to burn out. Of course, having a 5 meter candle in a house is very inefficient, but we can balance the width and the height of the candle to achieve an optimal size for the painting candle clock. Unfortunately, there is no candles with a width of more than 2 cm available where I live, so a candle with a width of 2 cm was all I had for calculation.
My device is a meaningful and effective way to tell time because it doesn’t only rely as usual on one medium, such as fire or paint, but rather uses both to reach higher precision. My clock doesn’t rely on the dripping bag of paint only, but the burning candles as well.My clock merges both ideas into one. It solves common water clock-problems such as imprecise liquid dripping by using the Asian candle clock as a complement to its precision, and vice versa.
For this time-telling device I used concepts such as combustion, as well as amplitude and periods. My time telling device completes one full period (1 hour) when detaching from both candles once. [Please show & explain how your sketch demonstrates at least 1 of these mathematical & scientific concepts: pi, Pythagoras, arcs, period, longitude, etc]
If we look at the history of my device, it is believed to state back all the way to the 16th century BCE in Egypt and Babylon. Water clocks, except for the vertical gnomon and the tally stick, are believed to be the oldest time-keeping devices, along with sundials and hourglasses. The most primitive form of a water clock consisted of any timepiece in which time is measured by the regulated flow of liquid into or out from a vessel, where the amount is then measured. The paint bag in my device uses this principle by dripping the paint in a regulated flow. Candle clocks however, are believed to state back to 520 CE in China and Japan. These clocks consisted on a thin candle with consistently spaced markings (usually with numbers), that when burned, indicate the passage of periods of time. The candles in my time telling device assimilate this process, except that instead of using consistently spaced markings, it uses a nylon string.
