Water Clock Project: Home

Understanding capillary action, using rulers to measure lengths, measuring volume of liquid in milliliters, constructing and interpreting graphs, employing critical thinking, developing conceptual understanding of 1 minute and 1 hour, and utilizing estimation skills.

Presents information on an armillary sphere developed by Zhang Heng, a Chinese astronomer during the Later or Eastern Han dynasty. Use of the sphere in the country to observe the positions of celestial objects; Discovery of the potential location of the water clock-powered sphere of Zhang by archeologist Wang Zhongshu and his colleagues in 1978; Role of the fluid drive of the instrument in diminishing the chances that the dynasty would fall..

Early in history, humans sought methods to tell time. A concept rather than a physical entity, time eluded accurate measurement for many centuries. One of the first successful timekeeping devices was the water clock, which was perfected in China in the eighth century. It wasn't until nearly seven centuries later that mechanical clocks began to make their appearance. Mechanical clocks not only made timekeeping much more precise, which was important for scientific purposes, but also introduced it to the masses when centrally located clock towers equipped with bells loudly struck the hour.

The article focuses on the ways on how ancient Egyptians measure time. It states that clocks in ancient Egypt were based on observing the movement of an item in spatial terms, which is where all the methods of early time-keeping are based. It notes that a clock was developed based on the changing length and angle of a shadow in order to measure the progress of the day. It talks about the development of a star clock, which can be seen in the royal tombs from Rameses VI to Rameses IX. It discusses the use of outflow water clocks, or clepsydra. It cites the importance of keeping time in the Egyptian culture..