The Invention of Time

Education · 20 questions

Clocks, calendars and seasons: the strange history of measuring time.

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1. Dividing the hour into 60 minutes comes from whose number system?

   1. The Egyptian base-10 system
   2. The Babylonian base-60 system
   3. The Roman base-12 system
   4. The Chinese base-2 system
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   B) The Babylonian base-60 system

2. Why is February shorter than the other months?

   1. Roman calendar reforms redistributed the days
   2. The lunar cycle shortens in winter
   3. Winter months were counted as shorter
   4. A miscount discovered later
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   A) Roman calendar reforms redistributed the days

3. Why are leap years necessary?

   1. The Moon's motion drifts each year
   2. The seasons swap places over time
   3. Earth's orbit does not take exactly 365 days
   4. Calendars wear out over centuries
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   C) Earth's orbit does not take exactly 365 days

4. What happened in many countries when the Gregorian calendar was adopted?

   1. The new year was celebrated twice
   2. The months were all renamed
   3. The week was extended to eight days
   4. Days were removed from the calendar at once
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   D) Days were removed from the calendar at once

5. Which development made standard time zones necessary?

   1. Railway timetables
   2. Airline schedules
   3. The telegraph
   4. Radio broadcasting
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   A) Railway timetables

6. Why was Greenwich chosen as the prime meridian?

   1. It sits exactly at the centre of the map
   2. A royal decree fixed it there
   3. Most nautical charts already used it
   4. It was chosen entirely at random
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   C) Most nautical charts already used it

7. Dividing the day into 24 hours is generally credited to which civilisation?

   1. The Romans
   2. The Egyptians
   3. The Chinese
   4. The Persians
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   B) The Egyptians

8. Before mechanical clocks, what set the schedule in European monasteries?

   1. Tables of the sun's height
   2. Hourglasses in every room
   3. Charts of the night stars
   4. Prayer hours marked by bells
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   D) Prayer hours marked by bells

9. What made the pendulum clock a revolution in accuracy?

   1. Its metal never expanded with heat
   2. Its swing time barely depends on the swing width
   3. Its mainspring was unusually strong
   4. Its gears were extremely small
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   B) Its swing time barely depends on the swing width

10. Which invention solved the problem of finding longitude at sea?

    1. A clock accurate aboard a moving ship
    2. A far more sensitive compass
    3. A newly drawn star chart
    4. A much more powerful telescope
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    A) A clock accurate aboard a moving ship

11. What do atomic clocks actually measure time against?

    1. The rotation speed of the Earth
    2. The position of the Sun in the sky
    3. The vibration frequency of an atom
    4. The phases of the Moon
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    C) The vibration frequency of an atom

12. Why is a leap second occasionally added?

    1. Atomic clocks run slightly fast
    2. The calendar drifts each century
    3. Satellite signals arrive late
    4. Earth's rotation slows irregularly
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    D) Earth's rotation slows irregularly

13. What follows from there being no year zero in the calendar?

    1. Every year is shifted by one
    2. AD 1 comes immediately after 1 BC
    3. The leap year rule breaks
    4. Centuries last only 99 years
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    B) AD 1 comes immediately after 1 BC

14. Why does a sundial not show the same time on every day of the year?

    1. Shadows lengthen through the seasons
    2. The dial slowly slips out of alignment
    3. The Sun gradually cools
    4. The tilt and shape of Earth's orbit
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    D) The tilt and shape of Earth's orbit

15. A year lasts exactly 365 days and 6 hours.

    1. True
    2. False
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    B) False

16. Under the Gregorian rules 1900 was not a leap year but 2000 was.

    1. True
    2. False
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    A) True

17. Every time zone is offset from its neighbour by a whole hour.

    1. True
    2. False
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    B) False

18. Daylight saving time first became widespread during the First World War.

    1. True
    2. False
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    A) True

19. The length of a day is slowly increasing on geological timescales.

    1. True
    2. False
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    A) True

20. In ancient Rome the length of an hour changed with the season.

    1. True
    2. False
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    A) True