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A Brief History of Timekeeping: The Science of Marking Time, from Stonehenge to Atomic Clocks
Predating written language and marching on through human history, the desire for ever-better timekeeping has spurred technological innovation and sparked theories that radically reshaped our understanding of the universe and our place in it. Chad Orzel, a physicist and bestselling author, continues his tradition of demystifying thorny scientific concepts by using the clocks and calendars central to our everyday activities as a jumping-off point to explore the science underlying the ways we keep track of our time. Ancient solstice markers depend on the basic astrophysics of our solar system; mechanical clocks owe their development to Newtonian physics; and the ultra-precise atomic timekeeping that enables GPS hinges on the predictable oddities of quantum mechanics. Along the way, Orzel visits the delicate negotiations involved in Gregorian calendar reform, the intricate and entirely unique system employed by the Maya, and how the problem of synchronizing clocks at different locations ultimately required us to abandon the idea of time as an absolute and universal quantity. Sharp and engaging, A Brief History of Timekeeping is a story not just about the science of sundials, sandglasses, and mechanical clocks, but also the politics of calendars and time zones, the philosophy of measurement, and the nature of space and time itself.
324 pages, Paperback
First published January 25, 2022
About the author
Chad Orzel
8 books87 followersChad Orzel is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Union College in Schenectady, NY.
He studied at University of Maryland, College Park, MD: PhD in Chemical Physics, 1999 and Williams College, Williamstown, MA: BA in Physics, 1993.
From 1999-2001, Chad was a Postdoctoral Associate in the Physics Department at Yale University, studying Bose-Einstein Condensation (BEC) in the group of Mark Kasevich.
Chad has published in Science Magazine, Physics World and his PhD thesis research was carried out in the Laser Cooling Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
He studied at University of Maryland, College Park, MD: PhD in Chemical Physics, 1999 and Williams College, Williamstown, MA: BA in Physics, 1993.
From 1999-2001, Chad was a Postdoctoral Associate in the Physics Department at Yale University, studying Bose-Einstein Condensation (BEC) in the group of Mark Kasevich.
Chad has published in Science Magazine, Physics World and his PhD thesis research was carried out in the Laser Cooling Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 84 reviews
March 3, 2022
Not so sure about the brief part of this title. Aside from that, A Brief History of Timekeeping: The Science of Marking Time, from Stonehenge to Atomic Clocks indeed covers quite the range of timekeeping science and history—and you all know how much I love science books, and how much I love history books, so in case it isn’t clear, science history books are absolutely some of my favourite non-fiction. Applying to read this eARC from NetGalley and BenBella books was a no-brainer for me.
Chad Orzel, physicist and science writer, leads us through the progressive history of timekeeping technology and the accompanying social constructions of time. This is the thesis of the book, namely that our socially constructed temporal needs drove the search for increasingly precise timekeeping, which in turn influenced our conception of time. This feedback loop led us from Neolithic tracking of the changing seasons to marine chronometers, quartz watches, and atomic clocks that keep time down to the picosecond. Orzel both explicates the physical qualities of timekeeping methods and explores the people and processes involved in inventing or discovering these methods.
Some of the scientific explanations here can get quite intense. The book tries to separate the most intense and detailed parts of these explanations into sidebars (not that sidebars really … work … in an ebook). Nevertheless, even in the main part of the text, Orzel is assuming a fair amount of high school physics knowledge. I don’t think this is a downside, and even if, like me, a lot of that knowledge has atrophied for you, you will still be able to understand the gist of what Orzel is saying. Nevertheless, his explanations overall have reminded me of the sheer brilliance of the scientific method. The world we inhabit today exists not from the brilliance of individuals making profound leaps but rather from the persistence of experimenters, of craftspeople, of engineers and designers. The history of timekeeping is an iterative history, and when you think of it, so much of our technology is like that.
As far as the history goes, I think there’s something in here that will be new for almost everyone. You might be familiar with a couple of the events Orzel mentions—for example, he covers John Harrison’s efforts to win the Admiralty Board’s Longitude Prize (and comes for my girl Dava Sobel’s version of the story in the process!), and this was something I’ve read about before. But I really liked his exploration of the intricate mathematical efforts of first-millennium CE monks to line up and fix the calendars. Again, I keep thinking about our modern society’s dependence on computers for speedy, complex calculations. In actuality, up until recently, any kind of complex calculation would take someone hours or even days, let alone the time needed for double-checking.
This is part of the charm and power of A Brief History of Timekeeping. Like many a good science history, it helps me marvel in the wondrous nature of human innovation and inquiry. We went from hunting and gathering to agricultural revolutions all the way up to harnessing the power of the atom in order to measure our ever-changing definition of time … that’s just … wow. Yeah, this is a bit of a long read for something brief, but Orzel tells it well and in a way that makes every page worth it.
Originally posted on Kara.Reviews, where you can easily browse all my reviews and subscribe to my newsletter.
Chad Orzel, physicist and science writer, leads us through the progressive history of timekeeping technology and the accompanying social constructions of time. This is the thesis of the book, namely that our socially constructed temporal needs drove the search for increasingly precise timekeeping, which in turn influenced our conception of time. This feedback loop led us from Neolithic tracking of the changing seasons to marine chronometers, quartz watches, and atomic clocks that keep time down to the picosecond. Orzel both explicates the physical qualities of timekeeping methods and explores the people and processes involved in inventing or discovering these methods.
Some of the scientific explanations here can get quite intense. The book tries to separate the most intense and detailed parts of these explanations into sidebars (not that sidebars really … work … in an ebook). Nevertheless, even in the main part of the text, Orzel is assuming a fair amount of high school physics knowledge. I don’t think this is a downside, and even if, like me, a lot of that knowledge has atrophied for you, you will still be able to understand the gist of what Orzel is saying. Nevertheless, his explanations overall have reminded me of the sheer brilliance of the scientific method. The world we inhabit today exists not from the brilliance of individuals making profound leaps but rather from the persistence of experimenters, of craftspeople, of engineers and designers. The history of timekeeping is an iterative history, and when you think of it, so much of our technology is like that.
As far as the history goes, I think there’s something in here that will be new for almost everyone. You might be familiar with a couple of the events Orzel mentions—for example, he covers John Harrison’s efforts to win the Admiralty Board’s Longitude Prize (and comes for my girl Dava Sobel’s version of the story in the process!), and this was something I’ve read about before. But I really liked his exploration of the intricate mathematical efforts of first-millennium CE monks to line up and fix the calendars. Again, I keep thinking about our modern society’s dependence on computers for speedy, complex calculations. In actuality, up until recently, any kind of complex calculation would take someone hours or even days, let alone the time needed for double-checking.
This is part of the charm and power of A Brief History of Timekeeping. Like many a good science history, it helps me marvel in the wondrous nature of human innovation and inquiry. We went from hunting and gathering to agricultural revolutions all the way up to harnessing the power of the atom in order to measure our ever-changing definition of time … that’s just … wow. Yeah, this is a bit of a long read for something brief, but Orzel tells it well and in a way that makes every page worth it.
Originally posted on Kara.Reviews, where you can easily browse all my reviews and subscribe to my newsletter.
January 16, 2022
Thanks to Netgalley and BenBella Books for providing an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
I'm a self-confessed sucker for books titled "A Brief History of.." although my track record of fully understanding the treated topic ranges from fairly appreciable to almost negligible. The latter proved the case when I attempted to read "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking exactly 25 years ago. With this in mind and in view of the near identical title, it was with slight trepidation that I started out on "A Brief History of Timekeeping" by Chad Orzel. It proved to be a tremendously enjoyable read providing a broader treatment of the topic than I'd initially expected. The evolution of humanity's endeavour to observe and track time is intimately intertwined with the concomitant development of science through the ages. The evolution of science led to ever more precise ways of timekeeping and more precise timekeeping in turn aided the evolution of science. This book tracks the development of the concept of time, which was initially based on the asynchronous rotations of the sun and/or the moon. The corrective modifications each method's imprecisions constantly required were initially solved when timekeeping was divorced from the heavenly bodies and brought down to earth on the influences of Newtonian physics. The birth of Einstein's special and general theories of relativity lead to ever more precise methods of measuring the singular ticking of the concept of time. This book proved to be a wonderful journey through the history of science behind timekeeping and ended with a glance into the future.
I must admit that the astronomy and physics at times can seem a bit overpowering, unless you tackle the characteristics of cesium atoms, and general and special relativity on a frequent basis. Even though all topics are fairly clearly explained and illustrated (or can be glossed over as you get to the general idea of the matter), I think a basic understanding of physics is definitely helpful when tackling this book.
#ABriefHistoryofTimekeeping #NetGalley
I'm a self-confessed sucker for books titled "A Brief History of.." although my track record of fully understanding the treated topic ranges from fairly appreciable to almost negligible. The latter proved the case when I attempted to read "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking exactly 25 years ago. With this in mind and in view of the near identical title, it was with slight trepidation that I started out on "A Brief History of Timekeeping" by Chad Orzel. It proved to be a tremendously enjoyable read providing a broader treatment of the topic than I'd initially expected. The evolution of humanity's endeavour to observe and track time is intimately intertwined with the concomitant development of science through the ages. The evolution of science led to ever more precise ways of timekeeping and more precise timekeeping in turn aided the evolution of science. This book tracks the development of the concept of time, which was initially based on the asynchronous rotations of the sun and/or the moon. The corrective modifications each method's imprecisions constantly required were initially solved when timekeeping was divorced from the heavenly bodies and brought down to earth on the influences of Newtonian physics. The birth of Einstein's special and general theories of relativity lead to ever more precise methods of measuring the singular ticking of the concept of time. This book proved to be a wonderful journey through the history of science behind timekeeping and ended with a glance into the future.
I must admit that the astronomy and physics at times can seem a bit overpowering, unless you tackle the characteristics of cesium atoms, and general and special relativity on a frequent basis. Even though all topics are fairly clearly explained and illustrated (or can be glossed over as you get to the general idea of the matter), I think a basic understanding of physics is definitely helpful when tackling this book.
#ABriefHistoryofTimekeeping #NetGalley
November 4, 2021
A Brief History of Timekeeping
is both history and science, and so is the kind of book I gravitate to.
Author Chad Orzel starts with a strong statement in his introduction - "we [humanity] are and always have been a species that builds clocks". He then goes on to do a pretty good job justifying that statement with the rest of the book, which takes us from Neolithic megastructure timekeeping to today's atomic clocks that keep the time on our cellphones current, and the (historically extremely accurate) quartz watches many of us wear on our wrists.
Orzel is a scientist himself - holding a PhD in Chemical Physics - and also a Professor at Union College in Schenectady, NY. He's the author of several other pretty well received popular science books, such as the humorously titled How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog and How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog.
In this book Orzel promises to keep the content "approachable and engaging for as broad an audience as possible". To do so, he separates out more technical discussions into sidebars set off from the main text. You can choose to delve into the sidebars, or skip them knowing you'll still get the gist of what he's talking about. This approach works pretty well in the early chapters of the book (and yes, of course I read the sidebars). But later in the book as he gets into quantum physics and atomic clocks the main text gets pretty darn technical and the sidebars grow to multiple pages. I'm not too proud to admit that most, if not all, of the chapter on Quantum Clocks was way over my head. Well, my college days are far behind me, and it's apparent that I've hit that age where I've forgotten more than most college kids know.
In general though I found the book enjoyable. There is plenty of history here I didn't know about, and some things, like the advanced water clocks of China, that I was aware of but learned much more about. He's spends a fair amount of time on the Aztecs and their cosmology and calendar system, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
My personal preference in a history of science book like this one is that the author go heavy on the history and keep the science to the "explain it to me like I'm a fifth grader" level. This book is apparently adapted from a course Orzel teaches in the Physics Department at Union, and so perhaps for that reason the science throughout was a bit "heavier" than I would have liked. So for that reason I give A Brief History of Timekeeping Three Stars ⭐⭐⭐.
NOTE: I received an advanced reviewer's copy of this book through NetGalley and BenBella Books in exchange for a fair and honest review. The book will be generally available on January 25, 2022.
Author Chad Orzel starts with a strong statement in his introduction - "we [humanity] are and always have been a species that builds clocks". He then goes on to do a pretty good job justifying that statement with the rest of the book, which takes us from Neolithic megastructure timekeeping to today's atomic clocks that keep the time on our cellphones current, and the (historically extremely accurate) quartz watches many of us wear on our wrists.
Orzel is a scientist himself - holding a PhD in Chemical Physics - and also a Professor at Union College in Schenectady, NY. He's the author of several other pretty well received popular science books, such as the humorously titled How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog and How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog.
In this book Orzel promises to keep the content "approachable and engaging for as broad an audience as possible". To do so, he separates out more technical discussions into sidebars set off from the main text. You can choose to delve into the sidebars, or skip them knowing you'll still get the gist of what he's talking about. This approach works pretty well in the early chapters of the book (and yes, of course I read the sidebars). But later in the book as he gets into quantum physics and atomic clocks the main text gets pretty darn technical and the sidebars grow to multiple pages. I'm not too proud to admit that most, if not all, of the chapter on Quantum Clocks was way over my head. Well, my college days are far behind me, and it's apparent that I've hit that age where I've forgotten more than most college kids know.
In general though I found the book enjoyable. There is plenty of history here I didn't know about, and some things, like the advanced water clocks of China, that I was aware of but learned much more about. He's spends a fair amount of time on the Aztecs and their cosmology and calendar system, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
My personal preference in a history of science book like this one is that the author go heavy on the history and keep the science to the "explain it to me like I'm a fifth grader" level. This book is apparently adapted from a course Orzel teaches in the Physics Department at Union, and so perhaps for that reason the science throughout was a bit "heavier" than I would have liked. So for that reason I give A Brief History of Timekeeping Three Stars ⭐⭐⭐.
NOTE: I received an advanced reviewer's copy of this book through NetGalley and BenBella Books in exchange for a fair and honest review. The book will be generally available on January 25, 2022.
January 29, 2022
I received an advance copy of this book from Net Gallery in exchange for an honest review.
Boy, do I have mixed feelings about this book. I picked it up because I enjoy trade books about science and learning about parts of science in which I am not an expert. However, I drastically underestimated the extent to which my enjoyment of this book would rely on interest in astronomy and physics. In retrospect, sure, it makes sense that those would be important elements of the story of the history of timekeeping, but I didn't recognize that going in, and there wasn't really anything that would've warned me of it before launching in.
Sadly, it turns out that my interest in astronomy and physics was not nearly sufficient to sustain me through this book, so that it felt like a duty, like self-imposed homework--and not the kind I could look forward to-- to finish. If I hadn't committed to review it, I'd have bailed.
That said, it's not a bad book. It's well-written and informative; I learned a lot. The author is engaging. Someone who *were* interested in astronomy and physics would probably really enjoy this book. I'm just not the right audience for it.
Boy, do I have mixed feelings about this book. I picked it up because I enjoy trade books about science and learning about parts of science in which I am not an expert. However, I drastically underestimated the extent to which my enjoyment of this book would rely on interest in astronomy and physics. In retrospect, sure, it makes sense that those would be important elements of the story of the history of timekeeping, but I didn't recognize that going in, and there wasn't really anything that would've warned me of it before launching in.
Sadly, it turns out that my interest in astronomy and physics was not nearly sufficient to sustain me through this book, so that it felt like a duty, like self-imposed homework--and not the kind I could look forward to-- to finish. If I hadn't committed to review it, I'd have bailed.
That said, it's not a bad book. It's well-written and informative; I learned a lot. The author is engaging. Someone who *were* interested in astronomy and physics would probably really enjoy this book. I'm just not the right audience for it.
January 23, 2022
I finally gave up around 70%. I kept trying to restart and just couldn't take anymore.
This book started out strong and interesting, then devolved into a tired, generic retelling of the history of physics that I hard an extremely hard "time" connecting to anything to do with timekeeping. This seems like a classic case of "I had a good idea, but not enough to write an entire book on it." When the author started name-dropping alumni from his college connections during his side-bars into the irrelevant and referencing other books with suspiciously similar titles, I began to wonder if my time might be better spent on one of those books.
An editor could have taken out several hundred pages... and possibly had the author add a few that were on topic.
Audiobook copy provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
This book started out strong and interesting, then devolved into a tired, generic retelling of the history of physics that I hard an extremely hard "time" connecting to anything to do with timekeeping. This seems like a classic case of "I had a good idea, but not enough to write an entire book on it." When the author started name-dropping alumni from his college connections during his side-bars into the irrelevant and referencing other books with suspiciously similar titles, I began to wonder if my time might be better spent on one of those books.
An editor could have taken out several hundred pages... and possibly had the author add a few that were on topic.
Audiobook copy provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
February 9, 2022
This nonfiction book explores the history of how humans have measured time from solar days to hourglasses to mechanical timepieces to quartz chronometers to atomic clocks.
A few things I found interesting:
*How some societies/cultures favor solar calendars while other prefer lunar calendars.
*The Mayans had a very intricate calendar system.
* Pendulum clocks don’t work while at sea.
*Railroad companies had a big influence over time standardization in the U.S.
*The official reason Arizona doesn’t follow Daylight Savings is that having an extra hour of daylight during summer in the desert does not conserve energy.
Chad Orzel is a physics professor at Union College in Schenectady, New York and he used one of his classes as a framework for this book. As such, you can expect lots of historical figures and ideas from astronomy and physics as well as descriptions of physics concepts that can be applied to measuring time. Be prepared to spend some quality time with Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Tycho Brahe, and the Mayans.
A few things I found interesting:
*How some societies/cultures favor solar calendars while other prefer lunar calendars.
*The Mayans had a very intricate calendar system.
* Pendulum clocks don’t work while at sea.
*Railroad companies had a big influence over time standardization in the U.S.
*The official reason Arizona doesn’t follow Daylight Savings is that having an extra hour of daylight during summer in the desert does not conserve energy.
Chad Orzel is a physics professor at Union College in Schenectady, New York and he used one of his classes as a framework for this book. As such, you can expect lots of historical figures and ideas from astronomy and physics as well as descriptions of physics concepts that can be applied to measuring time. Be prepared to spend some quality time with Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Tycho Brahe, and the Mayans.
April 6, 2022
What time is it? Our civilization has certainly come a long way in its efforts to answer that question accurately. It’s been quite a journey.
I love history. In fiction of nonfiction. I’m also a fan of object histories as in histories told through objects, and I was kind of hoping this book would be something like that – a history of the world told through famous clocks or clock-related inventions. Alas, it turned out to be something more along the lines of the physics and science of time itself.
Which is fine, but to be honest was kind of a stretch for my nonscientific brain at times. I mean, this book gave my brain a very vigorous workout and I appreciate it, but it wasn’t what one might call and easy or conventionally enjoyable read the way pop science strives to be.
This isn’t pop, this is SCIENCE science. Physics on top of physics with math and trigonometry thrown in and then some.
Not in every chapter, mind you. The earlier ones were delightful accounts of ancient history’s best efforts to know what time it is. From water clocks to sundials and more. That sort of thing is of great interest to me. Then we got closer to now and the author (who is no stranger to books on physics) went into the details. To his credit, he does his best to explain things in an accessible manner, but it still kind of feels like a class. A very long class.
So, guess the overall impression if that of a smart well-written book that didn’t quite meet my expectations as a reader but did educate me a great deal and put the grey matter through some paces. If the subject is of interest to you, this book will do a great job of teaching you more. Just get ready to use your best sciencey brain. Thanks Netgalley.
I love history. In fiction of nonfiction. I’m also a fan of object histories as in histories told through objects, and I was kind of hoping this book would be something like that – a history of the world told through famous clocks or clock-related inventions. Alas, it turned out to be something more along the lines of the physics and science of time itself.
Which is fine, but to be honest was kind of a stretch for my nonscientific brain at times. I mean, this book gave my brain a very vigorous workout and I appreciate it, but it wasn’t what one might call and easy or conventionally enjoyable read the way pop science strives to be.
This isn’t pop, this is SCIENCE science. Physics on top of physics with math and trigonometry thrown in and then some.
Not in every chapter, mind you. The earlier ones were delightful accounts of ancient history’s best efforts to know what time it is. From water clocks to sundials and more. That sort of thing is of great interest to me. Then we got closer to now and the author (who is no stranger to books on physics) went into the details. To his credit, he does his best to explain things in an accessible manner, but it still kind of feels like a class. A very long class.
So, guess the overall impression if that of a smart well-written book that didn’t quite meet my expectations as a reader but did educate me a great deal and put the grey matter through some paces. If the subject is of interest to you, this book will do a great job of teaching you more. Just get ready to use your best sciencey brain. Thanks Netgalley.
January 20, 2022
What a great book! It takes you all the way from the very first recorded celestial observations to advances in quantum physics and special relativity, discussing how humans have studied and measured time. Orzel argues convincingly that timekeeping is a universal pasttime, functioning as a means to "impose order and predictability onto an otherwise capricious and confusing universe". He also shows how timekeeping has changed from a foray of a small group of elites to something accessible to all of us, with various indirect advantages we likely don't think about, such as the use of accurate timekeeping for GPS navigation.
The chapters are ordered - appropriately enough - chronologically, and cover developments in different cultures, though are more weighted towards Europe/North America (especially in the modern sections). We see astronomical observations suggested by ancient tombs, water clocks used in ancient Greece and China, advances in medieval Europe, and modern-day labs working with atomic clocks. Lots of questions are answered: Why does February only have 28/29 days? Why is the Chinese New Year out of sync from the Gregorian New Year? Why did people think that the Mayans predicted 2012 to be the apocalypse? How did the current system of timezones come about? And is that stuff in sci-fi films about ageing at different rates real?
Orzel has a gift for explaining complicated phenomena clearly. He makes the odd joke here and there without it feeling at all forced, and doesn't shy away from explaining core physics concepts in detail (don't be fooled by the title - this is a fairly long read). Personally, I studied physics to age 18 and loved it, so was thankful for refreshers and new knowledge. If you are less into physics, you may prefer to skim-read sections (Orzel himself suggests skipping the more detailed information in the text boxes, and you can miss the footnotes if you are not interested (but I recommend them if you are!)). I also really appreciated how Orzel provides relevant information about social and politic developments that affected the history of science; these serve both to spice up the text and contextualise (the lack of) developments.
A small note: If you have a choice, I would recommend looking for a physical copy. I read the ebook and while the formatting is very good (and the illustrations are a nice touch), some of the diagrams (e.g. Loc 380 on equinoxes) were too faint / had too small text to make out without somehow zooming in.
I read a free ARC ebook copy, received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The chapters are ordered - appropriately enough - chronologically, and cover developments in different cultures, though are more weighted towards Europe/North America (especially in the modern sections). We see astronomical observations suggested by ancient tombs, water clocks used in ancient Greece and China, advances in medieval Europe, and modern-day labs working with atomic clocks. Lots of questions are answered: Why does February only have 28/29 days? Why is the Chinese New Year out of sync from the Gregorian New Year? Why did people think that the Mayans predicted 2012 to be the apocalypse? How did the current system of timezones come about? And is that stuff in sci-fi films about ageing at different rates real?
Orzel has a gift for explaining complicated phenomena clearly. He makes the odd joke here and there without it feeling at all forced, and doesn't shy away from explaining core physics concepts in detail (don't be fooled by the title - this is a fairly long read). Personally, I studied physics to age 18 and loved it, so was thankful for refreshers and new knowledge. If you are less into physics, you may prefer to skim-read sections (Orzel himself suggests skipping the more detailed information in the text boxes, and you can miss the footnotes if you are not interested (but I recommend them if you are!)). I also really appreciated how Orzel provides relevant information about social and politic developments that affected the history of science; these serve both to spice up the text and contextualise (the lack of) developments.
A small note: If you have a choice, I would recommend looking for a physical copy. I read the ebook and while the formatting is very good (and the illustrations are a nice touch), some of the diagrams (e.g. Loc 380 on equinoxes) were too faint / had too small text to make out without somehow zooming in.
I read a free ARC ebook copy, received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Read
April 26, 2022I’d never thought about how scientific clockmaking was. I’d never really thought about the history of clocks in general, but I love them. Water clocks, sand-timers, watches, analogue clocks, alarm clocks; I love them all which is how I knew I had to read this book when I discovered its existence. I loved how the concepts in this book were explained in a way that almost everyone could grasp and understand, regardless of previous knowledge. That being said, I was having the time of life (pun intended) getting to utilize my (somewhat limited) knowledge of gravity, space-time, and Newtonian physics. If I was less of a nerd I might be embarrassed to admit this, but I was thrilled to put out my high school physics knowledge and put it to the test. I legitimately don’t think I’ve ever been happier reading a nonfiction than I was reading this. Though my physics knowledge was sufficient for me to enjoy this book, I did find myself a little bit lost in the some parts of the chapters covering celestial time-tracking; my astrophysics knowledge is limited. ;) Thankfully, Orzel explained everything in a way that I was able to grasp and eventually follow, definitely in part to the many beautiful diagrams and figures that provided visual aid.
I had never considered the amount of discrepancies that exist in the world of time. I had never realized that the creation of the Gregorian calendar (the calendar we use today) was such a taxing and arduous process. I was fascinated. If someone had told me the amount of work calibrating a clock took, I probably wouldn’t have believed them and asked “So what if your clock ticks 1 second per day slower?” That is apparently the wrong question to be asking considering a single second is actually an incredibly large amount of time in the physics world. I think that just about everyone who ever takes a moment to think about time has realized that it is a fluid and highly individual concept. What I hadn’t understood, though, was that our understanding and perception of time is completely centred around us and our daily needs. We really are a very self-centric people, aren’t we? Time is a constant, yes, but it is also relative to how its used.
I loved how Orzel distinguished between “genius” and “master craftsman” because it gave credit to the brilliant minds who theorized the physics as well as the individuals who made those discoveries a reality through an unglamorous life of hard work. It was also incredibly rewarding to see so many familiar names and influential figures like Schrodinger, Bohr, Rutherford, Galileo, Einstein, and others mentioned. I never though I’d be happy using my knowledge from Chemistry 1301A, but here we are. If you can’t already tell, I adored this book and highly recommend it to anyone looking for some more information on time. :)
I had never considered the amount of discrepancies that exist in the world of time. I had never realized that the creation of the Gregorian calendar (the calendar we use today) was such a taxing and arduous process. I was fascinated. If someone had told me the amount of work calibrating a clock took, I probably wouldn’t have believed them and asked “So what if your clock ticks 1 second per day slower?” That is apparently the wrong question to be asking considering a single second is actually an incredibly large amount of time in the physics world. I think that just about everyone who ever takes a moment to think about time has realized that it is a fluid and highly individual concept. What I hadn’t understood, though, was that our understanding and perception of time is completely centred around us and our daily needs. We really are a very self-centric people, aren’t we? Time is a constant, yes, but it is also relative to how its used.
I loved how Orzel distinguished between “genius” and “master craftsman” because it gave credit to the brilliant minds who theorized the physics as well as the individuals who made those discoveries a reality through an unglamorous life of hard work. It was also incredibly rewarding to see so many familiar names and influential figures like Schrodinger, Bohr, Rutherford, Galileo, Einstein, and others mentioned. I never though I’d be happy using my knowledge from Chemistry 1301A, but here we are. If you can’t already tell, I adored this book and highly recommend it to anyone looking for some more information on time. :)
April 16, 2022
Not what I was expecting. I was hoping for more of a horological history but this is focused much more on the science of time keeping and its application for further scientific developments. The extensive use of sidebars and footnotes is also a touch irritating. If you’re good at science you may well enjoy this book, for me it was too challenging!
October 25, 2022
A good primer for lots of science concepts. But. I now have a new measure of time: the Orzel minute. It’s the time necessary to read just one of his sentences.
December 28, 2021
I chose to read this book thinking its focus was history. What I did not realize until about the second third of the book was that it would also get into a great deal of astronomy and physics. Perhaps I should have delved further before reading to learn the author was a college professor and physicist who based the book on a course he teaches.
The book is a history, starting with prehistoric efforts to track seasons for purposes of crop planting and harvesting, with astronomy and the locations of heavenly bodies used to ascertain the time of day (e.g. sun overhead), time of year (e.g. sun doesn't rise as high in the sky), time of month (e.g. the size of the moon in the sky), and how other heavenly bodies were used to keep time. Orzel takes us from sundials, to the present, explaining ancient Mayan structures, Stonehenge and other early efforts to time the seasons, how calendars were created and their evolution, as well as timekeeping at the level of our clocks, watches, cell phones and other electronic devices. Lots of enlightening discussion of early efforts to keep time.
From the earliest civilizations he describes efforts to measure the time of day, including sundials, water clocks (which work on cloudy days), hourglasses, and the development of mechanical clocks, then on to electronic clocks using quartz crystals, atomic clocks and future, more advanced atomic clocks. While much of this is enjoyable, the text is full of references to principles of astronomy and physics, explained in the text and further in detailed asides. The many illustrations were very helpful in conveying some of these scientific concepts, but once Orzel got into the theories of general and special relativity and how time bends near heavenly objects exerting strong gravitational forces, things got beyond my ready comprehension.
The last third of the book, in particular, includes a great deal of science that explains how timekeeping has advanced. Unless one has recently taken a course in astronomy or physics, much of this will be dense and slow going. I for one was not interested in the basics of cesium atomic clocks nor the future of laser clocks. But I did enjoy learning about how our GPS system relies on highly accurate timekeeping, which in turn is aided by the atomic clocks on the many GPS satellites orbiting our home planet.
If you are a science buff, you will likely love this book. If you are more of a history buff or simply have an interest in timekeeping, you will find this book slow going but one can skip the detailed science and focus on the history.
Thanks to Net Galley and the publishers for providing an electronic copy of this book in exchange for an objective review which I have hopefully provided.
The book is a history, starting with prehistoric efforts to track seasons for purposes of crop planting and harvesting, with astronomy and the locations of heavenly bodies used to ascertain the time of day (e.g. sun overhead), time of year (e.g. sun doesn't rise as high in the sky), time of month (e.g. the size of the moon in the sky), and how other heavenly bodies were used to keep time. Orzel takes us from sundials, to the present, explaining ancient Mayan structures, Stonehenge and other early efforts to time the seasons, how calendars were created and their evolution, as well as timekeeping at the level of our clocks, watches, cell phones and other electronic devices. Lots of enlightening discussion of early efforts to keep time.
From the earliest civilizations he describes efforts to measure the time of day, including sundials, water clocks (which work on cloudy days), hourglasses, and the development of mechanical clocks, then on to electronic clocks using quartz crystals, atomic clocks and future, more advanced atomic clocks. While much of this is enjoyable, the text is full of references to principles of astronomy and physics, explained in the text and further in detailed asides. The many illustrations were very helpful in conveying some of these scientific concepts, but once Orzel got into the theories of general and special relativity and how time bends near heavenly objects exerting strong gravitational forces, things got beyond my ready comprehension.
The last third of the book, in particular, includes a great deal of science that explains how timekeeping has advanced. Unless one has recently taken a course in astronomy or physics, much of this will be dense and slow going. I for one was not interested in the basics of cesium atomic clocks nor the future of laser clocks. But I did enjoy learning about how our GPS system relies on highly accurate timekeeping, which in turn is aided by the atomic clocks on the many GPS satellites orbiting our home planet.
If you are a science buff, you will likely love this book. If you are more of a history buff or simply have an interest in timekeeping, you will find this book slow going but one can skip the detailed science and focus on the history.
Thanks to Net Galley and the publishers for providing an electronic copy of this book in exchange for an objective review which I have hopefully provided.
June 24, 2022
Although much of this history is well known, Orzel tells it well, and there are enough good details to make it a worthwhile read.
> The initial introduction of the Julian system required one “ultimus annus confusionis” to bring the calendar back into synch with the seasons: this “final year of confusion” (46 BCE in the modern system) ran to an amazing 445 days. The Julian calendar was officially introduced in 45 BCE, and after a small correction to the leap year implementation under the emperor Augustus in 8 BCE, it was the official calendar for the remainder of the Roman empire and into the post-Roman era of Europe
> the Islamic calendar gives highest priority to the phases of the moon, allowing the months of the year to drift through the seasons. The Julian calendar (immediate ancestor of the modern Gregorian civil calendar) gives the highest priority to the seasons of the year, ensuring that spring and summer always start in the same months, but losing any direct connection to the phases of the moon. The Hebrew calendar represents an attempt to strike a balance between the two, ensuring that the holy days always fall at the appropriate point in the lunar cycle, but inserting the occasional month to keep them in the right general season as well.
> The year 2030 is an interesting example of a Gregorian year in which Ramadan will start twice, first in January and again in late December.
> the months of Quintilius and Sextilius were renamed in honor of the Caesars, the origin of the modern names “July” and “August”; February was also shortened by another day to ensure that Augustus’s month was the same length as Julius’s
> a “lost” period of 11 days. In 1752 in the United Kingdom, September 2 was by decree of Parliament followed by September 14. … The dropping of 11 days was required to bring Britain (and its colonies) into synchrony with the Gregorian calendar that had already been in use in continental Europe for a century and a half.
> In 1517, a German monk named Martin Luther published his 95 Theses, a list of grievances about corrupt practices within the Catholic Church … Luther’s writings kicked off the Protestant Reformation that splintered the Catholic Church into the wide range of Christian denominations we have today, and it was the trigger for more than a century of sectarian warfare. In response to Luther and other reformers, the Catholic Church launched a “Counter-Reformation” to clarify and formalize Catholic doctrine. The centerpiece of this effort was the Council of Trent, formally convened by Pope Paul III in late 1545. Thirty-seven years and six popes later, this led to the adoption of the modern Gregorian calendar. … After he took office as Pope Gregory XIII in 1572, he decided to settle the calendar issue once and for all.
> This shift was accomplished by the same technique later used in Britain: dropping 10 days from the calendar for one year. Thursday, October 4, 1582, was followed by Friday, October 15, with the specific dates to be skipped chosen because no significant feasts or saints’ days fell in that span. … The calendar reform was announced in the papal bull “Inter gravissimus,” dated February 24, 1582, ordering its implementation that fall.
> Experiments with models made from plaster casts of the original suggest that the Karnak clepsydra worked very well at its (presumed) function of dividing the night into equal hours. As an additional refinement, the Karnak clepsydra features not just one hourly scale, but 12, each headed with the name of a month in the Egyptian civil calendar. The spacing between hour marks on these scales varies in a way that tracks the changing length of the night across the seasons. The careful shaping of the Karnak clepsydra is a significant accomplishment for the scientists and engineers of 1500 BCE, fully justifying Amenemhet’s posthumous pride in his invention. There’s a simpler way to ensure a constant rate of water flow, though, namely by keeping the level of the liquid constant. Of course, this can’t be used in an outflow-type clock (by definition), so it requires a transition to an inflow-type water clock
> The two periods of visibility, in the morning and evening, are roughly equal in length, but the two periods when Venus is lost in the glare of the sun have very different lengths. When the two planets are on opposite sides of the sun (“superior conjunction” in astronomy jargon), both planets are moving in a direction that tends to keep the sun between them, like two people in a slapstick comedy chasing each other around a table. Venus’s faster motion eventually makes it pull ahead, but the period in which it’s hidden lasts several weeks. When they’re on the same side of the sun (“inferior conjunction”), Venus’s faster orbit takes it away from the sun in a matter of a few days. This is why the time between Venus’s disappearance from the morning sky and its reappearance in the evening lasts 50 days (90 in the Dresden Codex tables), but its disappearance from the evening sky and return in the morning lasts only eight days.
> The lack of parallax for the new star showed that it was very distant from the earth, much more distant than the moon, which showed observable parallax. This was a clear problem for the Aristotelian worldview, which divided the universe into a variety of spherical zones associated with the various celestial objects located in them. The most distant sphere, containing the fixed stars, was held to be perfect and unchanging, with more transient effects like meteors and comets being essentially atmospheric phenomena confined to the “sublunar” region between the earth and the moon. Tycho’s parallax measurements placed the new star well outside that zone, and thus posed a philosophical problem. … His most famous instrument was the huge mural quadrant, essentially a circular arc a bit under two meters in radius painted on a north-south wall with markings for angles from 0 to 90 degrees (one-fourth of a circle, thus “quadrant”). The observer would move around to sight the object of interest as it crossed the north-south meridian, reading the declination off directly and determining the right ascension from the time (measured by water clocks in the observatory; in Tycho’s heyday, mechanical clocks weren’t up to the level of precision he demanded).
> The better known of the two was from the English clockmaker John Harrison, who developed a mechanical watch that could keep time at sea. The other large award handed out by the Board of Longitude was a posthumous £3,000 to German mathematician Tobias Mayer for a set of tables predicting the position of the moon with sufficient accuracy for navigational purposes. Mayer is far less celebrated than Harrison, but his method was in many ways the more immediately successful of the two, as his tables formed the basis of the Nautical Almanac that was distributed to ships by the British government and remained an essential navigational resource for a century and a half.
> In the third book, De mundi systemate (“On the System of the World”), Newton turned to detailed applications of the principles set forth in the first two, and compared them directly to observational data. A considerable amount of this book was devoted to exploring the orbit of the moon: Newton laid out the basic idea of the three-body interactions between the sun, the earth, and the moon, and showed how the changing magnitude and direction of the sun’s gravity on the moon can give rise to some of the observed perturbations of the lunar orbit. The quantitative calculation, though, does not work out as well as he might have liked: while Newton had the basic conceptual picture of how the force from the sun causes the apsidal precession of the moon’s orbit, his calculation of the rate of precession was half as big as that observed.
> The regular swinging of a pendulum depends on the downward pull of gravity, but on the deck of a wave-rocked ship, the exact orientation of the clock changes constantly, introducing errors in the rate of ticking. Effectively, the rocking introduces extra “circular error,” because each time the pendulum reaches its turning point, it’s at a different angle from the true vertical. Even if this could be countered, a seagoing pendulum clock must also contend with the problem discovered by Richer in Cayenne: the strength of gravity is different at different latitudes, changing the period of a pendulum by enough to introduce errors of a few minutes per day. This manifested as an apparent eastward shift in longitudes measured on the 1687 voyage of Huygens’s marine clock, which ticked slower as it approached the equator.
> In the mid-1860s, the best astronomical determinations of the longitude difference between Europe and North America disagreed with each other, and with measurements based on transporting high-quality chronometers back and forth across the Atlantic, by around four seconds. While that seems tiny compared to the issues that faced navigators in John Harrison’s day, it was embarrassingly huge compared to the precision obtained on land using time signals sent by telegraph. The discrepancy was resolved in 1867, using signals sent between Newfoundland and Ireland on one of the first reliable transatlantic cables.
> The initial introduction of the Julian system required one “ultimus annus confusionis” to bring the calendar back into synch with the seasons: this “final year of confusion” (46 BCE in the modern system) ran to an amazing 445 days. The Julian calendar was officially introduced in 45 BCE, and after a small correction to the leap year implementation under the emperor Augustus in 8 BCE, it was the official calendar for the remainder of the Roman empire and into the post-Roman era of Europe
> the Islamic calendar gives highest priority to the phases of the moon, allowing the months of the year to drift through the seasons. The Julian calendar (immediate ancestor of the modern Gregorian civil calendar) gives the highest priority to the seasons of the year, ensuring that spring and summer always start in the same months, but losing any direct connection to the phases of the moon. The Hebrew calendar represents an attempt to strike a balance between the two, ensuring that the holy days always fall at the appropriate point in the lunar cycle, but inserting the occasional month to keep them in the right general season as well.
> The year 2030 is an interesting example of a Gregorian year in which Ramadan will start twice, first in January and again in late December.
> the months of Quintilius and Sextilius were renamed in honor of the Caesars, the origin of the modern names “July” and “August”; February was also shortened by another day to ensure that Augustus’s month was the same length as Julius’s
> a “lost” period of 11 days. In 1752 in the United Kingdom, September 2 was by decree of Parliament followed by September 14. … The dropping of 11 days was required to bring Britain (and its colonies) into synchrony with the Gregorian calendar that had already been in use in continental Europe for a century and a half.
> In 1517, a German monk named Martin Luther published his 95 Theses, a list of grievances about corrupt practices within the Catholic Church … Luther’s writings kicked off the Protestant Reformation that splintered the Catholic Church into the wide range of Christian denominations we have today, and it was the trigger for more than a century of sectarian warfare. In response to Luther and other reformers, the Catholic Church launched a “Counter-Reformation” to clarify and formalize Catholic doctrine. The centerpiece of this effort was the Council of Trent, formally convened by Pope Paul III in late 1545. Thirty-seven years and six popes later, this led to the adoption of the modern Gregorian calendar. … After he took office as Pope Gregory XIII in 1572, he decided to settle the calendar issue once and for all.
> This shift was accomplished by the same technique later used in Britain: dropping 10 days from the calendar for one year. Thursday, October 4, 1582, was followed by Friday, October 15, with the specific dates to be skipped chosen because no significant feasts or saints’ days fell in that span. … The calendar reform was announced in the papal bull “Inter gravissimus,” dated February 24, 1582, ordering its implementation that fall.
> Experiments with models made from plaster casts of the original suggest that the Karnak clepsydra worked very well at its (presumed) function of dividing the night into equal hours. As an additional refinement, the Karnak clepsydra features not just one hourly scale, but 12, each headed with the name of a month in the Egyptian civil calendar. The spacing between hour marks on these scales varies in a way that tracks the changing length of the night across the seasons. The careful shaping of the Karnak clepsydra is a significant accomplishment for the scientists and engineers of 1500 BCE, fully justifying Amenemhet’s posthumous pride in his invention. There’s a simpler way to ensure a constant rate of water flow, though, namely by keeping the level of the liquid constant. Of course, this can’t be used in an outflow-type clock (by definition), so it requires a transition to an inflow-type water clock
> The two periods of visibility, in the morning and evening, are roughly equal in length, but the two periods when Venus is lost in the glare of the sun have very different lengths. When the two planets are on opposite sides of the sun (“superior conjunction” in astronomy jargon), both planets are moving in a direction that tends to keep the sun between them, like two people in a slapstick comedy chasing each other around a table. Venus’s faster motion eventually makes it pull ahead, but the period in which it’s hidden lasts several weeks. When they’re on the same side of the sun (“inferior conjunction”), Venus’s faster orbit takes it away from the sun in a matter of a few days. This is why the time between Venus’s disappearance from the morning sky and its reappearance in the evening lasts 50 days (90 in the Dresden Codex tables), but its disappearance from the evening sky and return in the morning lasts only eight days.
> The lack of parallax for the new star showed that it was very distant from the earth, much more distant than the moon, which showed observable parallax. This was a clear problem for the Aristotelian worldview, which divided the universe into a variety of spherical zones associated with the various celestial objects located in them. The most distant sphere, containing the fixed stars, was held to be perfect and unchanging, with more transient effects like meteors and comets being essentially atmospheric phenomena confined to the “sublunar” region between the earth and the moon. Tycho’s parallax measurements placed the new star well outside that zone, and thus posed a philosophical problem. … His most famous instrument was the huge mural quadrant, essentially a circular arc a bit under two meters in radius painted on a north-south wall with markings for angles from 0 to 90 degrees (one-fourth of a circle, thus “quadrant”). The observer would move around to sight the object of interest as it crossed the north-south meridian, reading the declination off directly and determining the right ascension from the time (measured by water clocks in the observatory; in Tycho’s heyday, mechanical clocks weren’t up to the level of precision he demanded).
> The better known of the two was from the English clockmaker John Harrison, who developed a mechanical watch that could keep time at sea. The other large award handed out by the Board of Longitude was a posthumous £3,000 to German mathematician Tobias Mayer for a set of tables predicting the position of the moon with sufficient accuracy for navigational purposes. Mayer is far less celebrated than Harrison, but his method was in many ways the more immediately successful of the two, as his tables formed the basis of the Nautical Almanac that was distributed to ships by the British government and remained an essential navigational resource for a century and a half.
> In the third book, De mundi systemate (“On the System of the World”), Newton turned to detailed applications of the principles set forth in the first two, and compared them directly to observational data. A considerable amount of this book was devoted to exploring the orbit of the moon: Newton laid out the basic idea of the three-body interactions between the sun, the earth, and the moon, and showed how the changing magnitude and direction of the sun’s gravity on the moon can give rise to some of the observed perturbations of the lunar orbit. The quantitative calculation, though, does not work out as well as he might have liked: while Newton had the basic conceptual picture of how the force from the sun causes the apsidal precession of the moon’s orbit, his calculation of the rate of precession was half as big as that observed.
> The regular swinging of a pendulum depends on the downward pull of gravity, but on the deck of a wave-rocked ship, the exact orientation of the clock changes constantly, introducing errors in the rate of ticking. Effectively, the rocking introduces extra “circular error,” because each time the pendulum reaches its turning point, it’s at a different angle from the true vertical. Even if this could be countered, a seagoing pendulum clock must also contend with the problem discovered by Richer in Cayenne: the strength of gravity is different at different latitudes, changing the period of a pendulum by enough to introduce errors of a few minutes per day. This manifested as an apparent eastward shift in longitudes measured on the 1687 voyage of Huygens’s marine clock, which ticked slower as it approached the equator.
> In the mid-1860s, the best astronomical determinations of the longitude difference between Europe and North America disagreed with each other, and with measurements based on transporting high-quality chronometers back and forth across the Atlantic, by around four seconds. While that seems tiny compared to the issues that faced navigators in John Harrison’s day, it was embarrassingly huge compared to the precision obtained on land using time signals sent by telegraph. The discrepancy was resolved in 1867, using signals sent between Newfoundland and Ireland on one of the first reliable transatlantic cables.
January 14, 2022
My husband is a clock freak so I thought it would be fun to learn about the history of time keeping so we could chat.
Sadly I DNFed this book. I know it sounds cliched but it’s me, not the book. I simply couldn’t warm up to the topic. The author is super knowledgeable but the info is presented very academically. I like my history and non-fiction to have a little more narrative.
Bonus points however for putting all the hardcore science info in shaded sidebars and encouraging non-science readers to pass them by. The author clearly understood not everyone is as into physics and math as he is.
Over all, I’m sure the book will be interesting to a certain audience. Just not me.
Sadly I DNFed this book. I know it sounds cliched but it’s me, not the book. I simply couldn’t warm up to the topic. The author is super knowledgeable but the info is presented very academically. I like my history and non-fiction to have a little more narrative.
Bonus points however for putting all the hardcore science info in shaded sidebars and encouraging non-science readers to pass them by. The author clearly understood not everyone is as into physics and math as he is.
Over all, I’m sure the book will be interesting to a certain audience. Just not me.
February 14, 2022
I love the pun in the title.
I have a bit of mixed feelings about this book. I find the topic fascinating, but maybe that is also why there wasn’t very much information in the book, especially regarding the later period. Although, mostly I’ve encountered the topic as Greek/Arab astronomers --> Calendar wars --> Harrison!, so it was nice to see the arrows fleshed out a bit. The book follows an obvious logical structure, moving from the deep history of not very accurate “clocks” to progressively higher precision modern timekeepers, ending up with today’s and tomorrow’s hyper-accurate frequency combs. Each step in the progression is explained both in what innovations enabled this development and what necessitated it. Like how the long history of tracking the equinoxes allowed astronomers to see them slide slowly across the calendar and to figure out what corrections were needed to amend it and keep the months in good behaviour.
It's all very well worth reading and I would urge everyone not to skip the marked out “harder” sections. They are perfectly well understandable and Orzel uses a minimum a jargon, making it very accessible also for those who have no science background. (Sometimes I feel these “expert bits” in books are there only to make the readers feel good about themselves: “Hey, I understand the hard sections!”) Although, even reading through the chapter twice, I still have no idea how the Maya calendar works!
My favourite bits of the book though, are the little humorous gems spread out through the text and in the footnotes: “Mostly bad omens: ‘Woe to the moon,’ ‘Woe to man,’ and ‘Woe to the maize god’ […] The Maya do not seem to have been a cheerful people.” and “That difference is readily measurable […] at least if you’re a monk with limited entertainment options.”
I have a bit of mixed feelings about this book. I find the topic fascinating, but maybe that is also why there wasn’t very much information in the book, especially regarding the later period. Although, mostly I’ve encountered the topic as Greek/Arab astronomers --> Calendar wars --> Harrison!, so it was nice to see the arrows fleshed out a bit. The book follows an obvious logical structure, moving from the deep history of not very accurate “clocks” to progressively higher precision modern timekeepers, ending up with today’s and tomorrow’s hyper-accurate frequency combs. Each step in the progression is explained both in what innovations enabled this development and what necessitated it. Like how the long history of tracking the equinoxes allowed astronomers to see them slide slowly across the calendar and to figure out what corrections were needed to amend it and keep the months in good behaviour.
It's all very well worth reading and I would urge everyone not to skip the marked out “harder” sections. They are perfectly well understandable and Orzel uses a minimum a jargon, making it very accessible also for those who have no science background. (Sometimes I feel these “expert bits” in books are there only to make the readers feel good about themselves: “Hey, I understand the hard sections!”) Although, even reading through the chapter twice, I still have no idea how the Maya calendar works!
My favourite bits of the book though, are the little humorous gems spread out through the text and in the footnotes: “Mostly bad omens: ‘Woe to the moon,’ ‘Woe to man,’ and ‘Woe to the maize god’ […] The Maya do not seem to have been a cheerful people.” and “That difference is readily measurable […] at least if you’re a monk with limited entertainment options.”
February 13, 2022
For a long time I was looking for two books: one that would cover the history of timekeeping devices from sundials to quartz clocks; and the other tracing the history of humanity's search for patterns in the sky leading to astronomy, astrology, Ptolemaic model, Copernicus, Tycho Brahe and Kepler. While these people were focused on the heavens, Galileo was looking into the movement of earthly objects. Finally the two streams met in the grand synthesis of Newton.
I was lucky to find this book that served both objectives. It is lucidly written and parts of it are as captivating as a detective novel. There are technical matters, but the author has taken care to flag them to allow non-technical readers to skip. It has been one of the most satisfying reads in a long time.
I have a few cribs, however. While the work of Tycho Brahe and Kepler is covered in great detail, Copernicus is glossed over. Mayan astronomy is covered in depth, but there is not much about Indian astronomy. Finally, an appendix containing a timeline of important milestones would have been very useful.
Highly recommended to anyone who is interested in these subjects.
I was lucky to find this book that served both objectives. It is lucidly written and parts of it are as captivating as a detective novel. There are technical matters, but the author has taken care to flag them to allow non-technical readers to skip. It has been one of the most satisfying reads in a long time.
I have a few cribs, however. While the work of Tycho Brahe and Kepler is covered in great detail, Copernicus is glossed over. Mayan astronomy is covered in depth, but there is not much about Indian astronomy. Finally, an appendix containing a timeline of important milestones would have been very useful.
Highly recommended to anyone who is interested in these subjects.
January 18, 2022
NetGalley and the publisher provided me with a review copy.
A Brief History of Timekeeping: The Science of Marking Time, from Stonehenge to Atomic Clocks by Chad Orzel is a top-level overview of the ways humanity has kept track of time, primarily in chronological order.
Orzel clearly knows what he's talking about. From the broad overviews down to the specific examples, his history of clockwork and timekeeping is well-researched. His knowledge really shines, though, when we get to the back half of the book and move from discussions about calendars and astrological date keeping to mechanical clocks and the science of time. His experience as a physicist really comes off the page.
That being said, I really thought the book took a step down once it got into the science of timekeeping. The science portion is still relevant to the history of timekeeping, yes, and it's decently interesting stuff, but the whole tone changes. We go from a broad overview of the history of how and why people kept time and the differences in their methods and motivations to a detailed and focused look into the science of how recently modern and modern clocks keep time. There's a difference in tone and a difference in subject. This portion of the book, primarily the last few chapters, felt weaker to me than the early parts of the book.
Orzel does a solid job of both presenting the methods and history of how time was kept as well as presenting likely motivations for competing systems. The best example of this is his time spent writing about calendrical systems used by humanity throughout the past and how they came to be. The political and religious motivations were explained in a fascinating way, as well.
Overall, if you have questions about a specific era and how exactly people, from the rich to the poor to the urban to the rural, kept time, you may want to look for something more specific. If you want a decent outline of how timekeeping evolved, as well as thoughts and conceptions of time itself, this is a good book to pick up.
A Brief History of Timekeeping: The Science of Marking Time, from Stonehenge to Atomic Clocks by Chad Orzel is a top-level overview of the ways humanity has kept track of time, primarily in chronological order.
Orzel clearly knows what he's talking about. From the broad overviews down to the specific examples, his history of clockwork and timekeeping is well-researched. His knowledge really shines, though, when we get to the back half of the book and move from discussions about calendars and astrological date keeping to mechanical clocks and the science of time. His experience as a physicist really comes off the page.
That being said, I really thought the book took a step down once it got into the science of timekeeping. The science portion is still relevant to the history of timekeeping, yes, and it's decently interesting stuff, but the whole tone changes. We go from a broad overview of the history of how and why people kept time and the differences in their methods and motivations to a detailed and focused look into the science of how recently modern and modern clocks keep time. There's a difference in tone and a difference in subject. This portion of the book, primarily the last few chapters, felt weaker to me than the early parts of the book.
Orzel does a solid job of both presenting the methods and history of how time was kept as well as presenting likely motivations for competing systems. The best example of this is his time spent writing about calendrical systems used by humanity throughout the past and how they came to be. The political and religious motivations were explained in a fascinating way, as well.
Overall, if you have questions about a specific era and how exactly people, from the rich to the poor to the urban to the rural, kept time, you may want to look for something more specific. If you want a decent outline of how timekeeping evolved, as well as thoughts and conceptions of time itself, this is a good book to pick up.
September 4, 2022
Even though the title is attention-grabby, trying to milk the success of a different book, A Brief History of Timekeeping is quite enjoyable. Not as laser-focused as other topical books I could remember (the excellent Exactly: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World comes to mind), it gives you a quick and a high level overview of how human thinking about time evolved with improving technology and science. Plus a lot of physics on top of that, which some people could find unnecesarry.
The book somehow naturally divides into a narrative about measuring "long" time changes (years down to days), where it goes and explains a lot of astronomy to you (which might be a bit unnecessary if your background is in the field but I hear that's not the case with everyone), and "short" time changes (from hours down), where on the one hand, it goes into some details about physics of atomic clocks and such and on the other hand, could - if I had any say in it - spend way more time discussing the mechanical improvements that made clockmaking what it is (or used to be) today. As a side note, check out this EXCELLENT blog: https://ciechanow.ski/mechanical-watch/
A Brief History of Timekeeping could be longer, could be more engineering-focused etc, but overall is a nice intro to the field and you are invited to spend time in the bibliography section, planning your next steps!
The book somehow naturally divides into a narrative about measuring "long" time changes (years down to days), where it goes and explains a lot of astronomy to you (which might be a bit unnecessary if your background is in the field but I hear that's not the case with everyone), and "short" time changes (from hours down), where on the one hand, it goes into some details about physics of atomic clocks and such and on the other hand, could - if I had any say in it - spend way more time discussing the mechanical improvements that made clockmaking what it is (or used to be) today. As a side note, check out this EXCELLENT blog: https://ciechanow.ski/mechanical-watch/
A Brief History of Timekeeping could be longer, could be more engineering-focused etc, but overall is a nice intro to the field and you are invited to spend time in the bibliography section, planning your next steps!
November 3, 2024
Chad Orzel's A Brief History of Timekeeping is a compelling exploration of humanity's ongoing quest to measure and understand time. From ancient solstice markers like Stonehenge to the ultra-precise atomic clocks that govern modern life, Orzel takes readers through the history and science of timekeeping.
The book covers a vast array of topics, including the development of mechanical clocks, the intricacies of the Gregorian calendar reform, and the revolutionary theories of relativity that reshaped our understanding of time. Orzel, a physicist and the bestselling author of How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog, has a knack for making complex scientific concepts accessible and engaging. His writing is both informative and entertaining, making this book ideal for anyone curious about the history and science behind the devices that keep us punctual.
Orzel delves into the scientific principles behind various timekeeping methods, from the astrophysics underpinning ancient monuments to the quantum mechanics that enable modern GPS systems. Alongside these technical discussions, he provides fascinating historical anecdotes and explores the cultural and political factors that have influenced our conception of time. While some readers may find the scientific details challenging, Orzel thoughtfully includes sidebars and footnotes for those who wish to dive deeper into the physics and mathematics of timekeeping.
Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.
January 10, 2022
I received a free eARC from the author/publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
A Brief History of Timekeeping is a fascinating micro history looking at time keeping from ancient times up to the present. It starts with pre-historic humans keeping track of the seasons for agriculture - when to plant and harvest crops- by using cues taken from the sun and moon (how high the sun is in the sky and lunar phases).
Orzel takes us on a journey, and we see the sweep of history in this book. We get to explore sundials, astronomical sites such as Stonehenge and Mayan buildings, as well as the creation and maintenance of calendars from all over the world. We also look at time keeping devices such as clocks, watches, and electronic devices such as phones. He also explores how the act of keeping time influences culture (like workdays etc).
In general the writing was simple and easy to understand, with sidebars explaining the more technical or theoretical aspects that are more difficult to understand. However, as the book went on these sidebars got longer and longer, and more difficult to understand, especially when he gets into the science of atomic clocks and quantum physics.
Still, this is an excellent overview of human attempts to keep track of time, and despite the pace slowing a bit at the end, I would recommend this to readers who are interested in science, history, timekeeping, and micro-histories.
A Brief History of Timekeeping is a fascinating micro history looking at time keeping from ancient times up to the present. It starts with pre-historic humans keeping track of the seasons for agriculture - when to plant and harvest crops- by using cues taken from the sun and moon (how high the sun is in the sky and lunar phases).
Orzel takes us on a journey, and we see the sweep of history in this book. We get to explore sundials, astronomical sites such as Stonehenge and Mayan buildings, as well as the creation and maintenance of calendars from all over the world. We also look at time keeping devices such as clocks, watches, and electronic devices such as phones. He also explores how the act of keeping time influences culture (like workdays etc).
In general the writing was simple and easy to understand, with sidebars explaining the more technical or theoretical aspects that are more difficult to understand. However, as the book went on these sidebars got longer and longer, and more difficult to understand, especially when he gets into the science of atomic clocks and quantum physics.
Still, this is an excellent overview of human attempts to keep track of time, and despite the pace slowing a bit at the end, I would recommend this to readers who are interested in science, history, timekeeping, and micro-histories.
May 1, 2022
I wanted to like this book more than I did. To be clear, I did like it overall, and I would rate it a solid 3.5/5 if Goodreads allowed it.
First, the good: engaging prose, a wry sense of humor, and a holistic approach that weaves together scientific, historical, and cultural insights. The first 2/3 of the book, in particular, are excellently balanced and full of interesting information.
The book's big problem is that, particularly in the final 1/3, it dives so deep into trying to explain the science of relativity, atomic clocks, and other dense physics topics that it begins to feel like a physics textbook—and not an especially accessible one. I appreciate that Orzel didn't want to talk down to readers, but some these later chapters became nearly impenetrable, and certainly feel like they require a much higher level of physics literacy than most readers will have at hand.
Throughout the book, Orzel uses "sidebar" chapters to contain the partition the dense science and math content. It's a serviceable, if inelegant, conceit ... but one that ends up being all but meaningless in later chapters. Likewise, the figures and illustrations—probably the single most useful thing in explaining physics—are frequently unhelpful due to poor design or just a lack of labeling.
I would recommend the book to anyone curious about the science and history of timekeeping with the caveat that you may find yourself skimming the final few chapters out of necessity.
First, the good: engaging prose, a wry sense of humor, and a holistic approach that weaves together scientific, historical, and cultural insights. The first 2/3 of the book, in particular, are excellently balanced and full of interesting information.
The book's big problem is that, particularly in the final 1/3, it dives so deep into trying to explain the science of relativity, atomic clocks, and other dense physics topics that it begins to feel like a physics textbook—and not an especially accessible one. I appreciate that Orzel didn't want to talk down to readers, but some these later chapters became nearly impenetrable, and certainly feel like they require a much higher level of physics literacy than most readers will have at hand.
Throughout the book, Orzel uses "sidebar" chapters to contain the partition the dense science and math content. It's a serviceable, if inelegant, conceit ... but one that ends up being all but meaningless in later chapters. Likewise, the figures and illustrations—probably the single most useful thing in explaining physics—are frequently unhelpful due to poor design or just a lack of labeling.
I would recommend the book to anyone curious about the science and history of timekeeping with the caveat that you may find yourself skimming the final few chapters out of necessity.
May 17, 2022
I have to suppose the author could not resist echoing the Stephen Hawking title A Brief History of Time, because "brief" is not a reasonable description of the 300 dense pages he delivers. "Brief" in fact is not a reasonable description of his approach to writing a sentence. We do get some interesting facts and some interesting discussion, but I think if there'd been only half as many words I'd have read twice as many of them.
The material is very muddily organized, with chapter titles which are not designed to let you know where in history you are. "Drips and Drops," "Watch This," "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is," does anybody really get a clue what's going to be in the chapter? Topic headings within the chapters are equally obtuse, more weak puns than information.
And the "Introduction" is a waste of pages. Nothing of interest that I hadn't already figured out on my way to opening the book.
So, for example, let me pose a question: Do we have 12-hour clock faces because that's the way people were used to reading time from a sundial?
Now let me challenge you to find that answer in the book. I've looked for it and I still don't know if it's in there.
The material is very muddily organized, with chapter titles which are not designed to let you know where in history you are. "Drips and Drops," "Watch This," "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is," does anybody really get a clue what's going to be in the chapter? Topic headings within the chapters are equally obtuse, more weak puns than information.
And the "Introduction" is a waste of pages. Nothing of interest that I hadn't already figured out on my way to opening the book.
So, for example, let me pose a question: Do we have 12-hour clock faces because that's the way people were used to reading time from a sundial?
Now let me challenge you to find that answer in the book. I've looked for it and I still don't know if it's in there.
January 26, 2022
Do you like Doctor Who and other hard science fiction that really gets into the physics of time and space? Then you will love this book. The real history of timekeeping is just as interesting as SF. Orzel also writes in a manner that I, as someone who isn't a student of physics, can understand.
The book begins with a discussion of ancient monuments, and the ways those told time, and moves all the way through atomic clocks and other current experiments. He does a great job of explaining how astronomical bodies, including the earth, were the traditional basis for timekeeping, but now the second is defined by atomic vibrations. He relates the importance of time to travel, in that without it accurate latitude and longitude were not possible on ships, and that railroad travel forced consistency with time zones in the US. I love thinking about time as a human construct, but this book elucidates so many things that had never occurred to me.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone with a curious mind, but especially those who love science and science fiction. It is accessible, and the figures really help explain topics. It's long, but not difficult to read.
The book begins with a discussion of ancient monuments, and the ways those told time, and moves all the way through atomic clocks and other current experiments. He does a great job of explaining how astronomical bodies, including the earth, were the traditional basis for timekeeping, but now the second is defined by atomic vibrations. He relates the importance of time to travel, in that without it accurate latitude and longitude were not possible on ships, and that railroad travel forced consistency with time zones in the US. I love thinking about time as a human construct, but this book elucidates so many things that had never occurred to me.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone with a curious mind, but especially those who love science and science fiction. It is accessible, and the figures really help explain topics. It's long, but not difficult to read.
February 16, 2022
Good book, though too advanced for my ears - I was definitely not the right audience for it lol
Author really knows a lot about the subject, and is really passionate about teaching it. I was very entertained on the beginning, and the narration is very well done. However, around the middle it becomes very complex for people who don't know lots about physics - or had been years that they studied so its all forgotten as in my case lol. The fact that I chose to listen to it as an audiobook also did not help, and I found myself only half listening for most of the second half, paying attention only on the parts that were more history instead of physics focused. I believe - though the narrator does a great job as mentioned before - that I would probably have understood more if I had read the physical version. It was very hard to keep up with the scientific part in the audio form.
Overall, I would recommend for people that has a grasp of physics.
I received a free digital ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review
Author really knows a lot about the subject, and is really passionate about teaching it. I was very entertained on the beginning, and the narration is very well done. However, around the middle it becomes very complex for people who don't know lots about physics - or had been years that they studied so its all forgotten as in my case lol. The fact that I chose to listen to it as an audiobook also did not help, and I found myself only half listening for most of the second half, paying attention only on the parts that were more history instead of physics focused. I believe - though the narrator does a great job as mentioned before - that I would probably have understood more if I had read the physical version. It was very hard to keep up with the scientific part in the audio form.
Overall, I would recommend for people that has a grasp of physics.
I received a free digital ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review
April 25, 2022
Enjoyed this and it would pair well with About Time: A History of Civilization in Twelve Clocks, though I think the latter was more accessible/engrossing.
On my review for About Time I noted that it didn't delve into the actual inner workings of clocks or concepts of ~time~ so if you'd like to fill in those gaps A Brief History of Timekeeping would help with that. The first two thirds of the book were great - addressed largely the history of what different methods were used too keep time from early on. Not just time of day but time of year as well. The entire last third was a little more of a slog - went into a lot of modern physics that relates to keeping time on an atomic scale. Some of it I've heard, some of it went over my head, but honestly it did fit appropriately within the scale of the topic, just be aware that it's a fairly large chunk.
On my review for About Time I noted that it didn't delve into the actual inner workings of clocks or concepts of ~time~ so if you'd like to fill in those gaps A Brief History of Timekeeping would help with that. The first two thirds of the book were great - addressed largely the history of what different methods were used too keep time from early on. Not just time of day but time of year as well. The entire last third was a little more of a slog - went into a lot of modern physics that relates to keeping time on an atomic scale. Some of it I've heard, some of it went over my head, but honestly it did fit appropriately within the scale of the topic, just be aware that it's a fairly large chunk.
October 31, 2021
Solstice caves. Gregorian compromise. "Give us our 11 days!" Mayan calendar ends (order your refills!). tictictic, the measure of time.
Orzel writes really clearly, even when the story is convoluted. The Julian calendar worked for 15 centuries before its rounding-error affected everyday life. I've read on this change in many books, but Orzel's is by far the best. But he also explains the Hebrew and Islamic moon-based calendars. One I never understood and the other was rare in my life until recently. Chronometers, for surveying and particularly for locating yourself east-to-west on the high seas, in search of treasure.
If you dig time, you must read this. Easily the best I have ever seen.
Orzel writes really clearly, even when the story is convoluted. The Julian calendar worked for 15 centuries before its rounding-error affected everyday life. I've read on this change in many books, but Orzel's is by far the best. But he also explains the Hebrew and Islamic moon-based calendars. One I never understood and the other was rare in my life until recently. Chronometers, for surveying and particularly for locating yourself east-to-west on the high seas, in search of treasure.
If you dig time, you must read this. Easily the best I have ever seen.
January 24, 2022
This was fun! Orzel struck a good tone between technical details and history, making this book relatively accessible to a somewhat general audience, although I definitely expected less scientific details. I absolutely loved the first half, but the modern history of timekeeping is held up by modern physics and chemistry, so he had to go through all those developments, which were less engaging. The sections about changing calendars to keep them in line with seasons is so interesting - seems alien to us but like,,,leap day is just that but codified I can't believe we know what year the Egyptian calendar started being used!
ARC provided by netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
May 21, 2022
This book lays out the info in a very approachable way for a general audience, but it is actually trying to teach the reader something. The text is 100% devoted to the subject at hand with only incidental references to the author's personal experience. This isn't like a Richard Fortey or Mary Roach book. Where other nonfiction books try to use personal authors' narratives to make the content more approachable, this author achieves approachability just by explaining things very clearly with a shrewd sense of where and to what extent to gloss over the details.
I happen to find clocks and timekeeping fascinating and have read far more technical accounts than this and so learned very little from this book. However, my fascination with the topic made it enjoyable to revisit nonetheless.
I happen to find clocks and timekeeping fascinating and have read far more technical accounts than this and so learned very little from this book. However, my fascination with the topic made it enjoyable to revisit nonetheless.
June 25, 2022
A great look at the subject of timekeeping. However, for a book about time and history it is frustratingly not in strict chronological order. Additionally, the introduction to chapters almost previews too much and so that makes the timeline jumps even greater and also leads to a lot of repetition. At times, especially as unfamiliar numbering systems were used, as well as when there were detailed descriptions of mechanical systems it was hard to follow as an audiobook, but that was my own fault and choice. Even though I've complained a lot in this review I really did enjoy the book. I would like to own it for my classroom and also want to read more of his books (if only I could find them on audio too).
October 18, 2021
This review is based on an ARC of A Brief History of Timekeeping: The Science of Marking Time, from Stonehenge to Atomic Clocks, which I received courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher (BenBella Books).
I'm not gonna lie, this one was a bit tedious. A Brief History of Timekeeping is undeniably well written, and many aspects of the history fascinated (as well as educated!) me. In the end though, I'm just not that interested in clocks.
If you have a curiosity for clocks or obscure histories in general, definitely check out A Brief History of Timekeeping!
I'm not gonna lie, this one was a bit tedious. A Brief History of Timekeeping is undeniably well written, and many aspects of the history fascinated (as well as educated!) me. In the end though, I'm just not that interested in clocks.
If you have a curiosity for clocks or obscure histories in general, definitely check out A Brief History of Timekeeping!
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