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ynot
15th February 2006, 04:16 PM
You may have all ,heard of these questions before, but in case someone hasn’t . . .

1) What man made time piece has the least moving parts?

2) What man made time piece has the most moving parts?
jimlintott
15th February 2006, 04:37 PM
Gee. I'd guess:

1) A sundial
2) An hourglass
GodMark2
15th February 2006, 04:40 PM
You may have all ,heard of these questions before, but in case someone hasn’t . . .

1) What man made time piece has the least moving parts?

2) What man made time piece has the most moving parts?


That depends on your definition of moving. A Sundial contains no moving parts in and of itself, but it does rely on the Earth's rotation, which is a movement. A quartz watch contains only a vibrating crystal, unless you count the electrons flowing through it that cause the vibrations.

Does the Earth count as a moving part? Does a stationary, but vibrating crystal count? Do electrons count? Atoms? Photons?
ynot
15th February 2006, 05:29 PM
That depends on your definition of moving. A Sundial contains no moving parts in and of itself, but it does rely on the Earth's rotation, which is a movement. A quartz watch contains only a vibrating crystal, unless you count the electrons flowing through it that cause the vibrations.

Does the Earth count as a moving part? Does a stationary, but vibrating crystal count? Do electrons count? Atoms? Photons?

Quite so. I was asking myself the same questions as I made the OP. Got the questions from a book and it gave the same answers as jimlintott - Sundail and hourglass.
GodMark2
15th February 2006, 05:46 PM
Quite so. I was asking myself the same questions as I made the OP. Got the questions from a book and it gave the same answers as jimlintott - Sundail and hourglass.

Ah, but why not count the individual mollecules of water in a waterglass? Then it would have much more moving parts than the hourglass. Or each electron in the Atomic Clock(http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/cesium.html)?

Are those not counted as moving parts? If not, why not?
geni
15th February 2006, 06:04 PM
[FONT=Verdana][SIZE=2]You may have all ,heard of these questions before, but in case someone hasn’t . . .

1) What man made time piece has the least moving parts?

Time candle. To work properly a sundial needs two moveing parts


2) What man made time piece has the most moving parts?


Posebly some of the ion fountain prototypes.
epepke
16th February 2006, 09:47 AM
Single-photon light stick.