What is a clock, and what does it do?

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Wednesday, September 1. 2021

What is a clock, and what does it do?

The New Thermodynamic Understanding of Clocks.

Studies of the simplest possible clocks have revealed their fundamental limitations — as well as insights into the nature of time itself.

Early in their conversations in Barcelona, Huber, Erker and their colleagues realized that a clock is anything that undergoes irreversible changes: changes in which energy spreads out among more particles or into a broader area. Energy tends to dissipate — and entropy, a measure of its dissipation, tends to increase — simply because there are far, far more ways for energy to be spread out than for it to be highly concentrated. This numerical asymmetry, and the curious fact that energy started out ultra-concentrated at the beginning of the universe, are why energy now moves toward increasingly dispersed arrangements, one cooling coffee cup at a time.

Posted by The Barrister in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 08:35 | Comments (11) | Trackbacks (0)

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How about black holes?

#1 Tim (William) Briggs on 2021-09-01 09:36 (Reply)

An interesting take on the fundamental notion of what a clock is.

To be clear, there are no reversible processes in the real world. The idea of reversibility in thermal physics is a conceptual tool that is approximated in reality in the realm of very small changes (e.g., in the pressure and temperature of a gas), but there always a change in entropy involved when we actually do experiments or measure anything.

#2 Hairless Joe on 2021-09-01 09:47 (Reply)

There is something uniquely Western about clocks and their representation of time that is embedded thread-like in our culture as one of its primary elements, when you think about it.

I've built one clock, from a kit, with my daughter when she is little. It was great fun. I have 3 clocks that I keep wound and I take great, unconscious comfort in their muted ticking and soft chimes, playing counterpoint in the background against the wind chimes outside. Order and Chaos.

#2.1 Aggie on 2021-09-01 09:53 (Reply)

“First a warning, musical; then the hour, irrevocable."
— Virginia Woolf, "Mrs. Dalloway"

#3 Zachriel on 2021-09-01 09:54 (Reply)

NOW becomes THEN instantaneously. Time flies, and flies don't have much time.

#4 Sam L. on 2021-09-01 10:18 (Reply)

Time is how we measure change. we compare the change in objects and compare that to the regular change in other objects -- sun, moon, stars. Time is a comparison of changes.

#5 Jan Peter Blickenstaff on 2021-09-01 10:36 (Reply)

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death.
—William Shakespeare, "MacBeth"

#6 Zachriel on 2021-09-01 11:10 (Reply)

Tomorrow! You're always a day away!

#7 Zachriel on 2021-09-01 11:17 (Reply)

Two thoughts:

How did the first clock maker know what time it was?

"Time flies like a arrow. Fruit flies like a banana"

#8 oolioo on 2021-09-01 11:29 (Reply)

The problem with the first clock was not knowing what time it was, but getting it to blink 12:00 when you first turned it on.

#8.1 SteveS on 2021-09-01 11:46 (Reply)

Idiocracy

#8.1.1 Zachriel on 2021-09-01 13:11 (Reply)

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Wednesday, September 1. 2021

What is a clock, and what does it do?