Cooperative Living March/April 2014 - 37

KIDS' KORNER by Anne M. Dellinger, Contributing Columnist
The Mystery of Time
How would you describe time?
You might say that time is what a clock measures. You
could add that time has a present, past and future and
therefore keeps everything from happening at once.
Understanding time can be tricky. Have you ever
noticed how identical timespans (intervals of time) often
seem to happen at different speeds?
For instance, those 30 extra minutes
in the swimming pool that your mom
granted you will zoom by in the blink of
an eye. But a half hour of weeding the
garden or push-mowing the grass will feel
like an eternity.
And when you're expecting a friend to arrive
for a visit, the hours of waiting are agonizingly
slow. But once he or she appears, the
fun begins and every 60 minutes from then
on seem to race around the clock.
Perhaps the most painfully slow passage
of time (for kids) occurs while buckled into the
backseat of a moving vehicle. In a few short miles and
minutes, the dreaded moment (for adults) arrives with
these four little words ... " Are we there yet? " Even though
all the travelers in the vehicle are experiencing the same
span of time, backseat time seems to pass more slowly.
Time can't be seen or sensed, yet it has always been
built into a person's daily existence. Ancient people
measured time by " suns, " " moons, " " winters, " and
" summers. "
A " sun " was one day or the time it took
the moving sun to return to a certain
place in the sky. A short journey might
take two or three " suns. "
A " moon " was the time from one
full moon to the next,
about 30 days or
what we call a month.
" Many moons ago "
meant many months ago.
These earliest people lived much of
their lives outdoors and knew that stars traveled across
the sky at different times. They planted and harvested
with the stars' movements and began an understanding
of seasons and the passing of a year. Events from the
distant past were described as " many summers " or
" many winters " ago.
At some point in history,
someone pushed a stick
into the ground and
watched its shadow move as
the sun made an apparent trip
across the sky. As stones were placed
along the shadow's path, this ordinary stick was marking
the beginning of timekeeping.
Sun Clocks
Around 3500 B.C., the
Egyptians greatly refined
the lowly shadow-stick by
building obelisks (think
small Washington Monuments).
Each stone pillar
cast a large shadow that
rotated around its base.
As the shadow's trail
was mapped out, the day was divided into
intervals representing hours. These stone
columns also revealed the longest and
shortest days of the year by the length of the shadows.
The Egyptians are also credited with developing a
more accurate shadow clock called the
sundial. It was divided into 10 parts
with 2 twilight hours. However, it only
kept time for half a day; at noon it had
to be turned 180 degrees to measure
afternoon hours. Unfortunately, sundials
were not useful at night or on cloudy days.
Water Clocks
Needing a better method of measurement,
the Egyptians next turned to water. They made
clay and stone jars with a row of hour marks
running down the inside and a tiny hole near
the bottom. To tell the time, one looked into
the water-filled jar and as the water slowly leaked out, he
or she could see which mark was at the water's top.
There were problems with this device also. The hours
marked off on different jars weren't always the same.
Some clocks would have longer or shorter hours than
others. And in cold weather the clock would freeze!
Centuries passed as people pressed on, devising new
ways to measure time.
continued on pg. 36
How did it get so late so soon? - Dr. Seuss * Time is the longest distance between two places. - Tennessee Williams
March-April 2014/www.co-opliving.com
35
*
KIDS! CLIP AND KEEP YOUR KIDS' KORNER COLUMNS IN A THREE-RING BINDER AND YOU'LL HAVE A NOTEBOOK CHOCK FULL OF FUN IDEAS AND ACTIVITIES FOR THE FUTURE!

Cooperative Living March/April 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Cooperative Living March/April 2014