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Swing time

A revolution in science that began in the sixteenth century had a significant impact on time. First, Polish mathematician Nicolas Copernicus (1473–1543) found that Earth rotates around the Sun, not the

other way around as was previously believed. His work caused a great deal of controversy because it was generally accepted at the time that Earth was the center of the universe. Eventually, the Copernican theory became accepted, and people could know Earth's location when they calculated time.

Then in 1581 Italian teenager Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) made a significant finding. The story goes that while Galileo was attending a church service, he began to watch a heavy lamp swinging from a chain attached to the ceiling. He used his pulse as a timepiece to note how long it took for each swing or oscillationA repeated back-and-forth movement.....

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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