3 Clocks, One Perfect Cube

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This sure seems like an awful lot of effort just to get a perfect cube once every twelve hours but there is definitely a cool / nerd factor here that can’t be denied.
 
All that work on the clock and they don't know how to pause the fucking video so we can see what they are talking about. :rolleyes:
 
TwiceOver said:
All that work on the clock and they don't know how to pause the fucking video so we can see what they are talking about. :rolleyes:
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Same thing I was thinking. That video was pointless, a picture would have been better.
 
how much effort does this really take? find 3 simple clocks, take out their internals and mount them to a piece of white board, set it so that the clocks are at the desired location. viola, every 12 hours the clock will return to the same position 12 hours ago.

throw in camera, done. an hours worth of work at most.
 
Problem is, unless they're attached to the same power source, their batteries will wear down at different intervals, throwing off the synchronization.

Not to mention, the bottom "clock" is set to a different time than the top two. So it fails at failing.
 
jebo_4jc said:
Problem is, unless they're attached to the same power source, their batteries will wear down at different intervals, throwing off the synchronization.

Not to mention, the bottom "clock" is set to a different time than the top two. So it fails at failing.
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QFT
 
Uh, isn't that a perfect hexagon? Sure looked like a six sided 2-dimensional structure to me. Just an observation. Bye.
 
jebo_4jc said:
Problem is, unless they're attached to the same power source, their batteries will wear down at different intervals, throwing off the synchronization.

Not to mention, the bottom "clock" is set to a different time than the top two. So it fails at failing.
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That might have been a problem before someone figured out how to make quartz crystal oscillators, y'know, almost 100 years ago.
 
Sounds like you know more than I do, but i do know when my clocks batteries are dying, it seems they fall behind in time.
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jebo_4jc said:
Sounds like you know more than I do, but i do know when my clocks batteries are dying, it seems they fall behind in time.
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
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While Srangara is talking about this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_oscillator

A crystal oscillator is an electronic circuit that uses the mechanical resonance of a vibrating crystal of piezoelectric material to create an electrical signal with a very precise frequency. This frequency is commonly used to keep track of time (as in quartz wristwatches)
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You are indeed correct about dying batteries:

Other factors influencing the frequency are the power supply voltage
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Unless the batteries start to detoriate at the same time and the exact same rate, you will see clocks go out of sync when their power source begins to fail and their frequencies are now off.

While other factors can also influence quartz, the quickest one you'll see if a dying battery.

So, IMO, Jebo is accurate.
 
But yes, quartz is accurate enough for the typical watch/clock application...

Assuming the power source is stable... Which a dying battery is not...
 
why did this make the front page of [H]? Terrible video, no cube visible at any point really, just a bunch of clocks running really fast. This reminds me of the "Cube 0" and "Cube 1" Sci Fi movies. Super, Epic, Fail.
 
Not only are all the clocks starting at different times. But how do you read the time? All 3 hands are the same size. So you couldn't tell by looking at it which is the minute and which is the hour hand to tell what time it is. Also you would need to know which of the 3 clocks is on the correct time time. So yeah, over all i call this "clock" a piece of shit.
 
How do we know they aren't all A/C powered and plugged into a strip so that all you have to do once you set the initial pattern is turn the switch on? I can see 3 cords leading out underneath. Also, if you click further, they do show a still picture, but check out the indulgent flowery crap they use as a caption:

"structured by nine lines, conceived from the hands of three clocks, three lines of which move across the face at one time, tick-tock, according to the same congruent rhythm, as it were, seemingly culminating in clear, minimalist forms before they get condensed into compact bodies, tick-tock, only to disintegrate promptly into particles that are chaotic, or simply light as a feather and somewhat highly poetic....Like wilted tulips or a broken glass in a Baroque painting....a stable geometrical form that as such, one is tempted to say, successfully withstands the metamorphoses of time and also the world..."
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This clock transcends comprehension and existence!
 
WOW. RE-FRICKEN-TARDED.

Both the above description and actual "clock" itself.
 
Tolyngee said:
While Srangara is talking about this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_oscillator

You are indeed correct about dying batteries:

Unless the batteries start to detoriate at the same time and the exact same rate, you will see clocks go out of sync when their power source begins to fail and their frequencies are now off.

While other factors can also influence quartz, the quickest one you'll see if a dying battery.

So, IMO, Jebo is accurate.
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I will defer to more expert timekeepers on this forum, but I have not been able to find a single source that indicates battery voltage is a real problem for quartz timepieces, which have compensation mechanisms. If a quartz watch's battery dies, it seems it is usually a very quick affair--it's not an accuracy problem as much as a not-telling-time problem. (Despite their improved accuracy over mechanical, quartz clocks are not used in certain mission-critical applications exactly because there is typically no warning that they are about to fail.)

E.g.
http://www.prestigetime.com/page.php?accuracy
http://www.timezone.com/library/archives/archives631703148375478424 (I am, however, somewhat skeptical of the claim that a 7-yr old battery ticked once every 20 seconds, moving the second hand 1/3 of the way along the watch face with each tick.)

This NIST pdf indicates an accuracy to within 1 second per day, based on a survey of several of the author's crappier watches (including a Mickey Mouse :)).
 
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