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Experiment 2
Water Clock: Does the amount of water in a water clock affect its accuracy?

Purpose/Hypothesis

Unlike sundials, water clocks do not depend on the daylight hours or a sunny day. This fact made water clocks useful timekeeping devices among ancient cultures. There are many different versions of water clocks. Ancient water clocks used one container with markings on it. A later water clock design has water drip at a constant rate from one container into another container below it. The height of the water in the bottom container indicates the amount of time that has passed since the clock was started.

One challenge in designing an accurate water clock relates to the rate at which the water flows or drips out of the container. The quantity of water in a container is one factor that can affect the drip rate of the water. In a container of...

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1. Introduction
2. Breaking up time
3. Swing time
4. A mess of times
5. Space-time: It's all relative
6. Atomic time
7. Experiment 1 - Pendulums: How do the length, weight, and swing angle of a pendulum affect its oscillation time?
8. Experiment 2 - Water Clock: Does the amount of water in a water clock affect its accuracy?
9. Design Your Own Experiment