FREE! Click here to Join FunTrivia. Thousands of games, quizzes, and lots more!
Quiz about A Time for Timekeeping
Quiz about A Time for Timekeeping

A Time for Timekeeping Trivia Quiz


The measurement of time is one of the most important things in society today. Our lives are controlled by it, down to the minutest detail. Test your knowledge of this central part of our culture, and how clocks have evolved over the centuries!

A multiple-choice quiz by CellarDoor. Estimated time: 8 mins.
  1. Home
  2. »
  3. Quizzes
  4. »
  5. Science Trivia
  6. »
  7. Technology and Computers
  8. »
  9. General Technology

Author
CellarDoor
Time
8 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
14,160
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
20
Difficulty
Tough
Avg Score
11 / 20
Plays
3700
Awards
Top 5% quiz!
Last 3 plays: Guest 2 (9/20), Guest 5 (1/20), Guest 86 (3/20).
- -
Question 1 of 20
1. In the beginning . . . there were many ways of keeping local time. One method, which didn't work on overcast days or at night, was the sundial. On what other factor was operation of a sundial dependent? Hint


Question 2 of 20
2. We have 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes in an hour, and 60 seconds in a minute. To what ancient people do we owe this system based on the number 60? Hint


Question 3 of 20
3. In the middle ages, mechanical clocks with gears and pulleys began to be built. One such clock, dating from the 13th century, is thought to be the oldest mechanical clock still in working order. In what English cathedral is it located? Hint


Question 4 of 20
4. Mechanical timekeeping took a great leap forward in 1656, when what inventor built the first pendulum clock? Hint


Question 5 of 20
5. The 'celestial clock' -- the telling of time from the apparent movements of the stars -- is based on the motion of what heavenly body against a background ('reference frame') of fixed stars? Hint


Question 6 of 20
6. As the 17th century ended, the need for an accurate seagoing clock became paramount, as empires expanded across the oceans. Without a clock, there was no way to determine longitude, or east-west position, and many ships were lost as a result. Why couldn't the new pendulum clocks be used? Hint


Question 7 of 20
7. The British government was particularly anxious to have the longitude problem solved, and offered a huge prize (20,000 pounds) to anyone who could produce a seagoing clock. Meanwhile, the Royal Observatory at Greenwich continued work on the 'celestial clock'. John Flamsteed began by compiling a reference frame of stars; what famous scientist, succeeding Flamsteed as Astronomer Royal, continued the work by charting the foreground motions of a body in the solar system? Hint


Question 8 of 20
8. In the 1720s, a self-taught English clockmaker thought he had found a solution to the longitude problem. What was his name? Hint


Question 9 of 20
9. His first model, the H1, used wooden gears instead of metal ones, so that it wouldn't need to be messily lubricated, and it replaced a pendulum with what other mechanism? Hint


Question 10 of 20
10. His third model, H3, included two innovations frequently used in modern machinery: the caged roller bearing (precursor to our ball bearings) for less friction, and the bimetallic strip to deal with what other problem? Hint


Question 11 of 20
11. Not even the H3 was reliable enough as a clock for seafarers. In 1761, the master clockmaker's son put his fourth and final model, H4, to the test. It was inspired by what newly-emerging timekeeper, subject of much contemporary ridicule? Hint


Question 12 of 20
12. While the H4 seafaring clock succeeded in the task assigned it by the Longitude Commission, its mettle was proved when a copy (K1) accompanied what famous explorer on a three-year voyage, never losing more than 8 seconds per day? Hint


Question 13 of 20
13. The next major advance in timekeeping occurred in the 1930s, with the quartz crystal oscillator -- a device used by just about everyone who owns a wristwatch. The quartz crystal as a timepiece is based on a combination of piezoelectricity and what principle?

Answer: (One Word -- Think Tuning Forks)
Question 14 of 20
14. As both astronomy and timekeeping grew more advanced, it was discovered that the earth does not rotate at a constant rate. It was then decided to move to an atomic standard, where one second is defined as 9,192,631,770 transitions of what element? Hint


Question 15 of 20
15. Standard cesium clocks are very accurate over longish time-scales, but they can lose accuracy when it gets down into micro- and nanoseconds (one-millionth and one-billionth, respectively). What other kind of atomic clock measures time over the short term? Hint


Question 16 of 20
16. The next wave of atomic clocks is the cesium fountain, which involves rapid temperature changes. One of the target temperatures is within a few billionths of a degree of what famous temperature constant? Hint


Question 17 of 20
17. What relatively new technology makes it so important to have accurate timekeeping over such tiny intervals? Hint


Question 18 of 20
18. What institution is responsible for measuring and distributing correct time in the United States? Hint


Question 19 of 20
19. On the light side: what surrealist painter created a famous painting featuring melting clocks and watches?

Answer: (Two Words (but just last name is ok))
Question 20 of 20
20. In closing: the world's atomic clocks never had a problem with the Y2K bug, since on the whole they measure long timescales not in years, but using what kind of daily measurement? Hint



(Optional) Create a Free FunTrivia ID to save the points you are about to earn:

arrow Select a User ID:
arrow Choose a Password:
arrow Your Email:




Most Recent Scores
Oct 27 2024 : Guest 2: 9/20
Oct 26 2024 : Guest 5: 1/20
Oct 26 2024 : Guest 86: 3/20
Oct 24 2024 : Guest 81: 12/20
Oct 16 2024 : Guest 174: 9/20
Oct 16 2024 : Guest 50: 0/20
Sep 23 2024 : Dagny1: 20/20
Sep 07 2024 : Guest 31: 1/20
Sep 07 2024 : ongrys: 17/20

Score Distribution

quiz
Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. In the beginning . . . there were many ways of keeping local time. One method, which didn't work on overcast days or at night, was the sundial. On what other factor was operation of a sundial dependent?

Answer: latitude

Latitude -- the north-south position of a place on the globe -- is important because sunlight strikes the earth at different angles at different latitudes. Hence, the spacing between hours on a sundial must vary according to latitude, and a Boston sundial will not work in Miami.

Nowadays, the relationship between the position of the sun and the time on the clock does depend on longitude as well, but this is only because time zones (introduced in the 19th century) have done away with the concept of true local time. It used to be that noon was always defined as the time when the sun was at its zenith, wherever you were, but markings on modern sundials have to take into account a location's east-west position within its time zone.
2. We have 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes in an hour, and 60 seconds in a minute. To what ancient people do we owe this system based on the number 60?

Answer: The Babylonians

After their 1789 Revolution, at the same time they changed the names of all the months, the French revolutionaries experimented with a decimal system of time (two cycles of 10 hours a day). The people hated it.
3. In the middle ages, mechanical clocks with gears and pulleys began to be built. One such clock, dating from the 13th century, is thought to be the oldest mechanical clock still in working order. In what English cathedral is it located?

Answer: Salisbury Cathedral

This clock was originally located in the belfry -- one of its gears was connected to a rope, which would ring the bells every hour. When Cromwell's troops damaged the belfry in the 1640s, the clock was moved to the cathedral, where it is no longer kept wound.
4. Mechanical timekeeping took a great leap forward in 1656, when what inventor built the first pendulum clock?

Answer: Christiaan Huygens

Although Galileo DESIGNED a pendulum clock, he never built one. Huygens's clock lost only one minute every day; later, more refined versions lost only 10 seconds. In fact, pendulum clocks remained the most accurate clocks until the advent of the quartz oscillator in the 1930s.
5. The 'celestial clock' -- the telling of time from the apparent movements of the stars -- is based on the motion of what heavenly body against a background ('reference frame') of fixed stars?

Answer: the moon

Although the celestial standard is no longer used for time -- that is, a year is no longer defined as the amount of time it takes Earth to orbit the sun -- 'celestial clock', or sidereal time, is still very important for astronomers.
6. As the 17th century ended, the need for an accurate seagoing clock became paramount, as empires expanded across the oceans. Without a clock, there was no way to determine longitude, or east-west position, and many ships were lost as a result. Why couldn't the new pendulum clocks be used?

Answer: The rocking of the ship would change the oscillation of the pendulum

When a ship rocks back and forth, it causes the pendulum's swings to speed up or slow down -- you can try it by tying a weight to a string, swinging it from your hand, and then seeing what it does when you tilt your hand back and forth. Here's how a clock would help longitude: if you know local time (from the position of the sun), and you know the time somewhere else, you can calculate your distance east or west from the difference in those times.
7. The British government was particularly anxious to have the longitude problem solved, and offered a huge prize (20,000 pounds) to anyone who could produce a seagoing clock. Meanwhile, the Royal Observatory at Greenwich continued work on the 'celestial clock'. John Flamsteed began by compiling a reference frame of stars; what famous scientist, succeeding Flamsteed as Astronomer Royal, continued the work by charting the foreground motions of a body in the solar system?

Answer: Edmund Halley

Halley reasoned that with Flamsteed's catalog of stars and a predictive chart of the motions of the moon, sailors could (with some complicated math) calculate their longitude accurately. By this method, they could; the problem was the difficulty of the math, and the frequent and deadly mistakes in calculations . . .
8. In the 1720s, a self-taught English clockmaker thought he had found a solution to the longitude problem. What was his name?

Answer: John Harrison

And he had found a solution! It did, however, require some tweaking . . . and some research loans from scientists of the day.
9. His first model, the H1, used wooden gears instead of metal ones, so that it wouldn't need to be messily lubricated, and it replaced a pendulum with what other mechanism?

Answer: linked balances, driven by springs

Lubrication at that time required animal oil, which got sticky after a few months so that the clocks would have to be taken apart, cleaned and reassembled -- and by that point, much time has been lost. The H1 performed well enough for second prize on a test voyage to Lisbon -- but Harrison, a perfectionist, began work on a second clock.
10. His third model, H3, included two innovations frequently used in modern machinery: the caged roller bearing (precursor to our ball bearings) for less friction, and the bimetallic strip to deal with what other problem?

Answer: temperature changes

Changes in temperature cause metals to expand or contract. For his clock, where the size of the metal piece is crucial to keeping a uniform time unit, Harrison welded two different metals together. They expand and contract at different rates, and so compensate for each other. Very important, when on a single voyage a ship might travel both to the arctic and to the tropics!
11. Not even the H3 was reliable enough as a clock for seafarers. In 1761, the master clockmaker's son put his fourth and final model, H4, to the test. It was inspired by what newly-emerging timekeeper, subject of much contemporary ridicule?

Answer: the pocketwatch

Harrison realized that in order to compensate for shipboard wobbles, his clock had to have a large number of ticks per minute -- the shorter the interval it measured, the less it would be affected by wobbles. H4, only 6 in. (13 cm) in diameter, looks just like an overgrown pocketwatch.

It performed 3 times better than necessary to win the prize -- but they refused to award it until the clock's success could be duplicated.
12. While the H4 seafaring clock succeeded in the task assigned it by the Longitude Commission, its mettle was proved when a copy (K1) accompanied what famous explorer on a three-year voyage, never losing more than 8 seconds per day?

Answer: Captain Cook

Cook referred to the clock as 'our Friend, the Watch', but his enthusiasm was proven mainly by the fact that he kept the experimental clock for use on his third and final voyage.
13. The next major advance in timekeeping occurred in the 1930s, with the quartz crystal oscillator -- a device used by just about everyone who owns a wristwatch. The quartz crystal as a timepiece is based on a combination of piezoelectricity and what principle?

Answer: resonance

Resonance occurs when an object is continually struck at the frequency of its natural vibrations; it then vibrates indefinitely at that frequency. A piezoelectric current allows us to 'strike' the quartz crystal indefinitely, providing vibrations at a constant and measurable frequency.
14. As both astronomy and timekeeping grew more advanced, it was discovered that the earth does not rotate at a constant rate. It was then decided to move to an atomic standard, where one second is defined as 9,192,631,770 transitions of what element?

Answer: cesium

To be precise, it's 9,192,631,770 transitions of cesium-133. A transition is a cycle of change between two states (ground and excited); it is most detectable in radioactive elements such as cesium.
15. Standard cesium clocks are very accurate over longish time-scales, but they can lose accuracy when it gets down into micro- and nanoseconds (one-millionth and one-billionth, respectively). What other kind of atomic clock measures time over the short term?

Answer: hydrogen maser

Thus, time is determined from a combination of measurements, using both cesium clocks and hydrogen masers.
16. The next wave of atomic clocks is the cesium fountain, which involves rapid temperature changes. One of the target temperatures is within a few billionths of a degree of what famous temperature constant?

Answer: absolute zero

Several physicists shared a Nobel prize for the method of getting the temperature that low, by the way.
17. What relatively new technology makes it so important to have accurate timekeeping over such tiny intervals?

Answer: Global Positioning System

The Global Positioning System (GPS) can currently fix your position to within a few meters, and timekeeping is central to GPS! The system works through triangulation: if you know your distance relative to two satellites, and you know where the satellites are, then you can tell where you are. (Actually, GPS usually uses four satellites, for redundancy and to account for the curved surface of the Earth.)

But how do you know how far away from the satellites you are? The answer is through timing. Each satellite has an atomic clock on board. It sends a signal to your GPS receiver along with the time the message was transmitted. Your receiver calculates how long it took the signal to reach it, and then calculates the distance from the elapsed time. The uncertainty in the position thus depends on the uncertainty in the timing.

Now suppose you want to land a plane on a rocking, pitching aircraft carrier with no lights, in the dead of night, under battle conditions? Wouldn't you want your position to be VERY accurate? To get those last few feet requires that the only errors in time measurement be truly tiny.
18. What institution is responsible for measuring and distributing correct time in the United States?

Answer: U.S. Naval Observatory

The Naval Observatory, with sites in Colorado and Flagstaff, Arizona, in addition to its headquarters in Washington, DC, has held this responsibility for over a hundred years.
19. On the light side: what surrealist painter created a famous painting featuring melting clocks and watches?

Answer: Salvador Dali

It's a quality painting.
20. In closing: the world's atomic clocks never had a problem with the Y2K bug, since on the whole they measure long timescales not in years, but using what kind of daily measurement?

Answer: Modified Julian Day

The Julian Day gives the number of days that have passed since noon (Greenwich Time) on 1 January, 4713 BC. The Modified Julian Day subtracts 2,400,000.5, which starts each day at midnight (not noon; this way it conforms with civil time) and reduces the number to a more manageable 5 digits.
Source: Author CellarDoor

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor rossian before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.
10/31/2024, Copyright 2024 FunTrivia, Inc. - Report an Error / Contact Us