It's About Time!

It's About Time! is relevant to the Science Curriculum at KS2 and KS3, and also to Maths, Geography, History and CDT at KS2 and KS3.

It's About Time! is a brief history of time and timekeeping from sundials to radio time signals.

The show starts with the Earth's motion around the Sun, how this gives rise to the day and night, and how this motion is mirrored in the movement of a shadow across a sundial - the first timekeeper. Then we go on to look at how water, and fire, and sand (and singing) were used to measure time. After that we look at the workings of mechanical clocks and how the properties of a pendulum make it a good basis for a precision timekeeper. We then look at how the coming of the railways led to the introduction of uniform time across Britain and the division of the World into time zones before finishing off with Daylight Saving Time.

Key Concepts:

The rotation of the Earth gives rise to the apparent motion of the Sun across the sky. Use of a shadow to track the movement of the Sun. Time can be measured by any steady process. Problems with the accuracy of water, sand and fire clocks. Isochronous property of pendulums. The period of a pendulum depends only on its length. How a pendulum controls the hands of a clock, through the escapement. Difference between Sundial Time and Local Mean Time. Time difference with longitude. Division of Globe into time zones. Daylight Saving Time.

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