Customer Reviews

Time's Pendulum: The Quest to Capture Time--From Sundials to Atomic Clocks

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The first half of this book is excellent in terms of tracking societal evolution and how it meshes with the technical evolution of modern timekeeping devices as well as explaining railroad time and zone time. So facinating that I couldn't put it down. The second half was so boring and dogmatic that if it weren't for the indignation it will certainly cause in any thinking adult, I wouldn't have been able to read 10 pages without going comatose. It covers the world of scientific speculation on the subject of the age of the Earth with virtually no objectivity or tolerance of any alternative opinion. Not only is the second half of the book poorly researched, supported and written (though, to give the author credit it can be difficult to write 170+ pages of unsupportable dogmatic drivel and make it interesting) it isn't even on the same subject you might expect the book to address. If you buy the book, I would recommend saving yourself the tears of frustration and skip part II.

It's about the quest to capture Time - from sundials to atomic clocks, this poetic & stimulating history retraces how we've measured this intangible & powerful force. Even though we can split a second into millions of moments we still can't describe what time is. When better than now, as a millennium begins, to read about our hunt for temporal time & how we've measured it. To spelunk the deep reaches of the universe to gauge the clock of the universe, to gauge the age of the orb we squabble over each day. A fascinating read, everything I think to write about this articulate & thoughtful book echoes with double entendres. ()