Martin Krzywinski (martink@bcgsc.ca, mkweb.bcgsc.ca)
Consider the lowly wall clock. It's practical: it generally tells the correct time. It's the same clock everywhere and after a while (like now) that gets boring pretty quickly.
Figure 1: The standard clock.
In the regular clock the face bezels stay in place and the hands move. Why am I telling you this? Well, maybe you see where I'm going.
Instead of rotating hands and a stationary bezel, consider the clock with stationary hands and a rotating bezel.
Figure 2: The non-standard clock. The hands stay in place while independent minute and hour hand bezels rotate to simulate the movement of the hands.
In the non-standard clock there are two independent bezels and two independent hands. The bezels rotate counterclockwise to simulate the standard clockwise motion of the hands. Note the word "simulate" here. The hands are not moving. (Applying some Galilean relativity, in the frame of reference of the hands, it's the bezels that are rotating. The non-standard clock simply takes the frame of reference of the hands, not the bezel).
IT'S LIKE... :: some watches (esp. divers' watches) already implement a rotating bezel to mark elapsed time; some have an extra racheting mechanism for safety.
FEATURE :: the bezel can move clockwise if you like - you just have to reprogram the clock.
To tell the time on the non-standard clock is a process identical to using the standard clock. You look at the bezel numbers at the ends of the hour and minute hands (Unfortunately, due to the ubiquity of the standard clock and the fixed bezel layout, most people take a short cut and tell the time by the position of the hands. This works as long as you have a standard clock. On a non-standard clock the position of the hands is insufficient.)
Here is a non-standard clock telling us it is 4:15. You know this because the minute hand (black) points to 15 on the minute bezel (inner bezel) and the hour hand (red) points to just after 4 on the hour bezel (outer).
Figure 3: It is 4:15.
After 15 minutes, it's 4:30 and our non-standard clock bezels have moved a little bit.
Figure 4: It is 4:30.
It is now 5:00.
Figure 5: It is 5:00.
Can you tell what time it is on the non-standard clock below?
Figure 6: If you answered 8:50, you are correct. It is 8:50.
Customizing your non-standard clock is easy. Simply adjust the hands to desired positions and set the time by moving the bezels. The clock below shows the same time as the clock in Figure 6.
Figure 7: This clock tells us it's 8:50. Compare this to the clock in Figure 6, which also tells the same time.
TIP :: spice it up with multiple non-standard clocks side-by-side with different hand positions.
TIP :: set both hand positions to 12 o'clock and then remove the hands; to tell time, read the numbers on the hour and minute bezels at the apex of the clock.
EXTENSION :: sophisticated implementations of the non-standard clock could periodically randomize hand positions to keep things interesting; by the time you've figured out the time in the morning, you're wide awake.
If you would like to implement the non-standard clock, I would be happy to hear from you. One should be able to take a regular wall clock, reverse the direction of the hand mechanism and rig a freely moving bezel to each of the minute and hour mechanism. The hands should not move and can be fixed to the front glass plate, for example.
It should now be clear that the non-standard clock is superior to the standard clock. The reasons are
The Non-Standard Clock (c) 2006 :: Martin Krzywinski