What is time? And why do we rely on Greenwich for it?

flooring business. This was in Huntsville, Alabama, and you know, at the front of his shop there he also had this collection of antiques and it was kind of like its own little antique shop, and he'd sell and trade pieces that he'd find. It shows around the Southeast, and it was one of my favorite places to be when I visited him. I'd either be hiding in the back and the rolls of carpet, pretending I was doing something really important at this antique roll top desk he kept

in there. But you know, it always seemed like my granddad's favorite things to collect and trade were these old clocks and watches. So if you were in the shop or at his home and you weren't used to it, at the ticking and the chiming of all those clocks could just make people crazy. But I always loved it, but it was kind of strange because he didn't seem to be looking for the fanciest or the most expensive watches he could find. He just liked to find ones

that were interesting to him. He'd sometimes see him wearing a watch that you hadn't seen before, and if you asked him where he'd gotten it, he'd just say, well, your cousin Sam and I liked each other's watches, so we just trade it. And it was just kind of the way he was. He just liked having him and

have other people get to experience them as well. But you know, my grandfather is obviously not alone in his fascination with time pieces and time in general, and the way we think about and talk about time has changed so much over the years, from the birth of time zones to thinking about time travel, to the disputes around what official time actually is. They're just so much we want to get to today, So let's dive in. Yea,

Hey there, podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson, and as always I'm joined by my good friend Manges Ticketer and on the other side of the soundproof glass showing off his brand new Omega speed Master watch. That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. Now, I don't know if you know this, Mango, but right there is the infamous Moonwatch. Oh my god, Tristess told me like twenty times already this morning. That's a moon watch. Such

a show off. I know the speed Master has been like the go to watch for NASA for like, you know, ever since, even before the moon landings took place. But I do think it's really nerdy and really cool that he has one. Well I would probably be sporting it too if I had one. But if you're listening, Omega, you can always throw us a couple of moon Watches

our way. So we're we're here, you know how to find us, And a little bit later we'll talk about exactly why NASA is so big on the speed Man Estra brand, as well as the stories behind a few other clocks and watches. But you know, before we get to the specific timekeepers, I thought we should kick things

off by talking a little bit about time itself. I mean, it's really the thing that drives and defines our lives in so many ways, And you think about how off and we talk about it, we spend it we save it, we waste it, we treasure it. But what even is time? I mean, is it an intrinsic part of the universe or just something we made up? So I want to turn this over to you, man, go and see if you can just go ahead and tell us, like, what

is time? Over to you? Yeah, I'm sure in like two minutes I'll be able to get through what time is. It could be awesome. I mean, quantum physicists aren't even convinced that time exists, so I think it would take a little more explaining than we can give it. But uh, maybe we should just say it's not a thing. Yeah, that's that. That might be the answer. End of episode.

But I mean, I think what they're arguing is more that time doesn't exist in the way that we usually think about it, you know, as this kind of ever moving line that only goes in one direct action, and physicists would say time is a little bit more like space. All of it just sort of exists at once and doesn't actually unfold in this chain of moments, which of

course is the way we as humans perceive it. Yeah, I don't know, maybe a better answer for people it's just like time is the stuff clocks run on, and I feel like that feels like a suitable answer. I feel like I can get behind that for this episode. I mean, I think we're more interested in the way that humans perceive and talk about time, So we'll probably leave relativity and causality for another episode because it's all fascinating stuff. But I like your idea of how to

frame this for today. So one thing I think it's fascinating, and it's something you mentioned, is how we experience time as a chain of moments. But have you ever stopped to think about how long exactly a moment is? You mean, like numerically or what I mean. I feel like a moment is just like that, just like a snap. That's it. That's how long a moment is, isn't it. Yeah. I mean, as scientific as that system you've given us sounds like it sures out we used to be a lot more

precise about moments than we are today. In fact, this is actually something I hadn't heard before this week. But apparently there was once a widely accepted definition for exactly how long a moment lasts. And this was true from the Middle Ages all the way up through the nineteenth century. So this definition was that a moment was precisely one hour or about nine seconds one forty Are you joking that that seems way too long? I'm telling you, mango, a moment. It's just that a moment, just a snap

of what a moment is. So I actually agree with you. I I lean more in that direction. But a moment in history is actually like an era, or it could be an entire decade of social upheaval, and it can really be as long or short as you wanted to be. And I think that kind of highlights the disparity between our approach to keeping track of time and the way

we actually think about it. I mean, we we use like complex things like the movements of stars and the radiation cycles of atoms to establish this sense of accurate timekeeping, and then all convinces ourselves that there is such a thing as correct time. But you know, for all the science and the precision behind those systems, we all still

perceive and speak about time in an incredibly subjective way. Yeah, that's a good point, And I do think in a really meaningful sense, time is something of a you know, more of a social construct, and you forget about moments and minutes because we also measure time with concepts derived from our socialization. I mean, think about things like work days and weekends and being on time or fashionably late.

I mean, all of these things are ways of marking time that we're definitely born from humans living and working together. And what's interesting is that because every society is different, there actually has a lot of variants out there when it comes to perceiving and talking about time. In fact, listen to this breakdown of how different cultures view time. There was this article from uh Science Daily, and so

here's what they had to say about it. Different languages also embodied different worldviews, different ways of organizing the world around us, and time is a case in point. For example, Swedish and English speakers prefer to mark the duration of events by referring to physical distances for example a short break, a long wedding, The passage of time is perceived as distance traveled. But Greek and Spanish speakers tend to mark time by referring to physical quantities for example a small

break or a big wedding. The passage of time is perceived as growing volume. You know, I always love hearing how other cultures handled their spatial metaphors. And you know, for instance, I was reading in Scientific American about this secluded group of tribes people in Papua New Guinea and they're called the yup No, and they live in these remote villages way up in the mountains, and they don't have any roads, electricity, and of course they interact very

sparingly with the outside world. But a group of researchers visited the tribe a few years back, and they found that these tribes people all made the same spontaneous gestures when speaking about time. Like, the researchers started filming, ing and analyzing these gestures, and what they found was that the Yepno people all justtured downward towards the mouth of the local river whenever they spoke about the past, and whenever they spoke about the future, they actually gestured uphill

to the river's source. I love stuff like that. I mean, we always think of time as being linear, you know, like the past is behind you and the future always lies ahead. I guess, yeah, But for the Yepno, it sounds like the past is at the bottom and the futures at the top. So basically time flows uphill in their minds from then in a straight line. I'm trying to think about what the logic would be behind that, though.

Do you do you know why that is? Apparently the researchers didn't find out for certain, but their best guess is that the Yepnos procession at the time comes from like the knowledge of their own history, and I guess their ancestors came to the region by sea and then climbed up the steep mountain valley to where they established the village. So it's possibly that the Yepno connects sort of that geography and the low lands with the past, and think of time is something that travels upward, just

like they did. H I just think that's beautiful to think about and just how different that is because we're also used to thinking of time is something we have no sway over, and I guess it's kind of nice to be reminded that so many things about it actually

are shaped by our own perspectives. Yeah, that's true. Like even once we started using clocks, everyone just set them to noon based on when the sun was the highest in the sky where they lived, so like one community's time would be several minutes off from the time in a town just a hundred miles away or so, and you know, having a ton of different local times like

that wasn't that much of a problem at first. You know, this was still a time before a rapid communication, rapid transportation, you know, so it didn't really matter that different communities kept different times. But as human beings began to explore and you know, developed new ways to travel, this global economy started to form. Suddenly the world found itself needing a way to really measure and communicate time with one another. And that's really how we wound up with things like

time zones or Greenwich meantime. All right, so let's talk a little bit more about that history. I mean, the pivotal moment that you're talking about really started during what we would call the Age of Exploration and ran right through the Industrial Revolution. For example, here in the US that you know, time took a major leap towards standardization

in the late eighteen hundreds. And when you look at why that was, I mean, this was largely due to that long distance travel that was finally possible because of the rise of railroads, definitely, and the invention of trains really changed the way we look at time in all sorts of ways. For instance, even though people had tried to predict the future for thousands of years, we didn't think about the possibility of traveling to the future until

after the train came along. And once we had a machine that could zip across these vast distances, these authors like H. G. Wells began to dream machines that could travel time as if it were a rail line itself. I mean, it's an interesting connection. But yeah, of course, railroads also forced people to think practically about time, not just creatively. And you think about trying to coordinate train schedules across all these different local time I mean, that

had to have been just this huge headache. And you know, so it was November of eighty three that the American railroads adopted a standard time system, and it was based on the four time zones that we're familiar with today. Here there's Eastern, Central Mountain, and Pacific and so the

clocks within each time zone were to be synchronized. And then as a result of that, the railroads only had to keep track of these four local times instead of the dozens that they were having to keep track of before. And that was obviously this big improvement all around, Like, you know, apparently a lot of people didn't see it

that way at first. But I was reading this article in Smithsonian, and there were a bunch of cities that insisted on keeping their own local time zones for everything except train schedules, and others refused to switch over that too. You know. Um it was mostly because these cities bristled at the idea of railroads kind of up ending their established way of doing things, like they just didn't want

to change. Like, there was this one editorial in a Cincinnati newspaper where the author actually proclaimed, quote, let the people of Cincinnati stick to the truth as it is written by the sun, moon and stars. I mean, that is what they do best in Cincinnati. Everybody knows that.

But I mean, you're right. Though, there was a staunch opposition to this change over for years after the time zone system was introduced, and so much so that, in fact, that the country didn't officially adopted until I think thirty five years later, and that was with the Standard Time Act of nineteen eighteen. Now, this also established daylight saving time for better or worse. Yeah, that's right. But America did take another important step towards standard time and years between.

And in fact, just one year after the railroads introduced US time zones, delegates from twenty five other countries gathered in Washington, d C. For what was called the UM the International Meridian Conference. And during this conference, the delegates voted to recognize the Greenwich Meridian in London as this common point from which nations would measure time and longitude.

And so how did they decide on Greenwich Meridian? And and I mean you can draw meridians at all different points on the globe, of course, So what what made this the clear choice? Well, for one thing, a lot of countries have been using the Greenwich meridian as the prime meridian for decades by the time the conference was held.

So in England the line had been established as zero degrees longitude in eighteen fifty one, and this fixed line allowed merchant ships and explorers to keep better track of their east west position while at sea. Like they could use the position to the sun and stars to get an idea of the time on board the ship and then compare that to the local time at the prime

meridian to determine their approximate location. So British sailors started traveling with chronometers set to Greenwich time, and soon the practice spread to countries all over the world. But even though this practice was legitimized at the four Conference, there were still some holdouts, you know, just like there were when railroads tried to introduce time zones. France in particular didn't like the idea of using British time and longitude

as the world's standard. Instead, they were pushing for Paris to be the side of the prime meridian. Of course, you know, no one else was really interested in this, and the Greenish meridian had already sort of like proven effective, so del Gets figured why start over? So how did France take that? Did they take the loss sense tried or do they pull a Cincinnati and throw a fit? Oh, they definitely throw a fit. I mean the French delegates

if stained from voting at the conference. Uh. They even decided to adopt Paris meantime as their national time, but eventually they had to switch to Grennish mean time, you know, like a few decades later. But even then some people in France would refer to g M T as quote, the meantime of Paris retarded nine minutes and twenty one seconds. I mean, I guess that's why we've always said that

France is really like the Cincinnati of Nations. Yeah, old, all right, Well, since you brought up g M T, we should probably talk a little bit about what that is and how exactly it's determined. Sure, but before we get into all that, let's take a quick break. You're listening to part Time Genius, and we're talking about mankind's many varied attempts to keep time. All right, Mango, So we talked a lot about the worldwide impact of the

Greenwich Meridian and Greenwich mean time. But I'm not done with this topic just yet because I'm still a little hazy on the specific. So do you have a sense of what we're actually referring to when we use these terms. Yeah, So we always think of the Prime Meridian as an imaginary line running around the world, just like we do with the Equator, and it definitely is that, But the

Grenich Meridian is also a physical line. Like there's this bronze strip that runs through a courtyard at the Royal Observatory in UH in London, and it represents the boundary between the Eastern and Western hemispheres. UH so if you were to stand with one foot on either side of the line, you technically be in two different hymns fears at the same time, I mean kind of these days. The prime meridian is determined by this complex statistical solution.

It involves, I think, algorithms and the coordination with the International Bureau of Weights and Measurements. It's it's way too complicated again into hear, but the basic result is that the physical line in the observatory courtyard is actually about ten feet off from where the imaginary line is that we might go by. Okay, so I see, So I get that g MT is based on the local time at that position of the prime meridian in Greenwich. So that explains the G and the T. But what about

the M. How do means fit into this whole thing? Yeah, the mean is just the average that's used when determining the accurate time in Greenwich. So the Earth obviously rotates at an uneven speed and the average just helps account for that. Okay, well, that actually clears up a good bit. There is one story that I want to tell here while we're on this subject of GMT, because there's the belvil that the are you familiar with the Belville family.

I do know about them. Yeah yeah, So just for our listeners, as the family that made a living by literally selling time to their neighbors. So, just in case you haven't heard this story, it starts with an astronomer and a meteorologist. His name was John Delvill and so he began working as an assistant at the Royal Observatory and Greenwich back in the eighteen thirties. Now, during this time, he would always set his pocket watch to the observatories clock.

And if you think about it, that was a pretty awesome job perk because this was the eighteen thirties, so it was tough to get the right time if you didn't live really close to the observatory and there were no radios, no telephones or even telegraphs to communicate that time to other parts of London. So unless you had access to the observatory, much like John did, you were pretty much out of luck and your clocks were likely to be off by you know, at least a few minutes.

And so John looks at this problem and he sees this money making opportunity and he starts selling the time to a network of subscribers all over the city. Now, each week he would get his pocket watch certified at the observatory, and then he would set off to visit London's clockmakers and shipping companies and even just some ordinary citizens who really wanted to know what time it was exactly.

And so these customers they would pay an annual fee for this service, and John would provide this thing for like twenty more years until he passed away. It's unbelievable that that he thought to make subscriptions for this thing

is just incredible. But you know what I love about the story is how easily it could have ended just there right like, Uh, by the time John died, time signals were being set by telegraph to anyone who owned one, so you know, his weekly visits weren't really necessary anymore. But after twenty years of trusting John's pocket watch, many of his subscribers couldn't stomach the thought of setting their clocks to an untested piece of technology like the telegraph.

It's almost like in Japan when they put out calculators. Uh, people need to have abicus is attached to them so that they would double check the work of the calculators. But so anyway, they were all these people who were desperate to maintain this service they knew and loved, and and these loyal customers kept asking John's much younger widow, Maria, to carry on the family business. And so she did for thirty six years when Maria carried her husband's watch

all over London. But then when she retired in her subscribers still weren't ready to give up the service, so they started petitioning for Belleville's daughter Ruth to take up this uh business of London's timekeeper. And then she did too. Wow. I mean, you think the story might end there, but it keeps going. And so even after making these weekly rounds for an additional forty eight years, Ruth only stopped in nineteen forty because World War Two had made it

too dangerous to walk the streets. I mean, if you think about it, she was eighty six years old. Radios had been broadcasting the time for decades at this point, but the family business was somehow still lucrative enough for her to keep up with it for her entire adult life. Yeah, I mean, it's it's pretty amazing that this family turned like this niche service into basically a dynasty, right Like

it's a multi generational and family business. And it's also amazing to me that like the Royal Observatory was just down with this arrangement, like they could have shut it down at any point, but they just never did. M Well, as long as we're doling out credit here, I think we should probably pause for a minute to give a shout out to Belville's pocket watch, which actually even had

a nickname. It was Arnold, and it was named after the person who made it, and all three Belvils relied on this same eighteenth century pocket watch when they were making their rounds, and it was a state of the art watch when John Delville purchased it nearly a hundred years before Ruth's retirement, and after all those intervening decades, it continued to provide time accurate to within I think a tenth of a second. So it's remarkable when you

consider how old this watch was. So as a reward for such faithful service, Arnold is now enshrine at the Clockmaker's Museum in London and it's still display there today. So nice work, Arnold. It is amazing that, like when you give something a name, it just becomes so much more charming, like if you called your toaster Oliver, suddenly is a much more toaster. But you know, what's interesting about pocket watches like Arnold is that they actually represent

a tipping point in the history of timekeeping. Yeah, I mean it's a big deal, but but what do you mean exactly? So obviously humans had tried and failed to keep accurate time for a long time by this point, you know, before we had these mechanical clocks run by gears and springs, and early civilizations like Egypt or China

they developed sundials to track the passage of time. These other civilizations created water clocks as to work around, so rather than relying on the stars and the sun, you know, they used water to steadily drip into a container that had these painted lines around the side to mark different points in the day. And of course this method had its problems too, you know, water freezes and that could

effectively stop the process. But many of these inconsistencies all fell by the wayside with the introduction of these mechanical clocks. This system just provide a way more reliable way of keeping time, and one that wasn't influenced by changes in temperature or lack of light and its mechanical clocks became more and more common and more portable. The active time keeping almost became more entwined with daily life than ever before. Okay,

I mean I think I see what you're saying. So pocket watches were kind of the breakthrough that allowed the average citizen to start keeping track of time in this really specific way. I mean, yeah, the old way of doing things where most people were just having to keep up with morning, noon, and nine. I mean, people could now easily gauge, you know, not only the individual hour, but down to the minute of the day exactly. Smithsonian has this really great article on the history of early timekeeping,

and there's one part I want to read. It's a nice breakdown of the pocket watches impact. It goes like this quote. Affordable pocket watches weren't common until the nineteenth century, but once they arrived, they quickly invaded the world of commerce. When you could time your actions with those of a remote trading partner, new styles of just in time commerce could merge. Pocket watch wielding conductors meant trains could begin

to keep regular schedules. Scientists and astronomers could conduct more precise experiments. Portable watches even made it easier for lovers to conduct illicit affairs by arranging to meet at a pre ordained spot in time. But having a watch wasn't just about keeping to the clock. It was a cultural marker, a performance of punctuality. Every time you pulled out your watch conspicuously and in public, you signal to others that

you were reliable. I mean that's interesting because you never really think about how much of a game change or portability was for time pieces. But I mean it makes sense that it would be. But you know, it's also easy to imagine how the pocket watch was kind of this springboard to the wrist watch. I mean, pulling one of those out of your pocket is easy when you're standing still, but it's a different story when you're doing something active, like if you're jogging or riding in a

car or whatever it might be. Yeah, it's obviously much easier to take a quick and set your wrist. I mean. The problem was that when the first first watches started showing up in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, they were

marketed almost exclusively to women. They had leather bands or metallic bands, they were small, they had these delicate watch faces, and they were primarily worn as jewelries, so men tended to shy away from them, and watchmakers came to view the idea of strapping a watch gear wrist is pretty silly. In fact, there was this one German watchmaker who referred to the custom as quote the idiotic fashion of carrying one's clock on the most restless part of the body,

exposed to the most extreme temperature variations. One hopes it will soon disappear. I love reading or hearing quotes about something like this that are just seems so harmless, and people speak so passionately. I think I've heard anybody speak so passionately against wrist watches. But obviously this guy didn't get his way. So what changed, Well, the turning point

really came during World War One. Officers started using them because it was easier to core NAT attacks with a watch on your wrist and it was to like fumble in your pockets. So as the war went on, watchmakers

started rolling out new models with soldiers in mind. They had these larger faces, these more prominent numbers to improve legibility, and in the end, this manlier take on the wrist watch was this huge hit with soldiers millions of whom continued wearing them once the war was over, and sales figures actually reflect the sea change. Like in a wristwatches only account for fifteen percent of all watches made in America, but by five the number had risen to eight percent

of American watches. So clearly all this rebranding paid off. Wow, and only what fifteen years that that is amazing. Well, you know, since we're on the subject of wrist watches as status symbols and how wars can kind of help broaden the market for them, I do feel like we have to talk about maybe the most famous luxury watch of them all, and that is, of course, the Rolex. Yeah, that's another great wartime story. But before we get to it,

let's take another quick break. All right, Well, so what's the scoop on Rolex and how exactly did it become a luxury brand. Well, like you explained, the First World War really established the wristwatches new role in combat and that's something that carried over into the Second World War as well. And the Rolex brand was this especially popular choice among British pilots who really considered the Swiss timepieces

to be the most accurate ones in the world. So long before they became status symbols here in the States, Rolexes were already treasured abroad for their utility really, and you know the only problem was that whenever these British pilots were shot down and taken prisoner, their German captors always confiscated their watches. So word of this gets to the co founder of Rolex and he decides to take

action on the troop's behalf. So the deal was that any British elett who lost their Rolex in the line of duty could simply send him a letter explaining the situation, and the company would then send out a replacement watch, along with a note telling the soldier not to quote even think of settlement during the war. So that's a

really nice gesture. And I guess they were kind of like, I use, when they came back to town they could get these watches, but realistically, like, how many POWs we're going to be allowed to send away for watches from these camps. Well, here's what surprising about this whole thing is that they were actually thousands of soldiers who responded to Rolex's offer. And as for getting the watches behind,

enemy lines. Apparently there were some German camps that gave special privileges to British airmen, including the chance to order and keep these watches. So, as you might imagine, this proved to be a bad idea for Germany in a few different ways. I mean, so for one thing, the Rolex program boosted the captured soldiers morale, and after all, the guy who had extended the offer to them, Hans Willsdorf,

was himself a German born expatriot. Now, by allowing soldiers to take on these io used that you mentioned, he was basically saying, hey, I believe the Allies are gonna win this thing, so go ahead and pay me when this is all over. That's pretty fascinating and I really do love it. You know, it never occurred to me that the arrangement could be taken, you know, as this vote of confidence, which is really cool. But you said the program also led to other problems for the Germans. Well,

that's definitely true. I mean, some of these replacement Rolex has played pretty critical roles in the British escape attempts. I mean, for instance, you know the so called Great Escape of ninety four. Well, the men who helped dig the tunnels, had to covertly disperse the excess soil and the prison yard, and so to help them with this, some of them were using Rolex watches to time the

movements of the guards. That's pretty awesome. But if the Rolex program was only open to British soldiers, like, how did it become such a hot brand in the US? Well, that was actually another unexpected benefit from the Rolex war campaign. So when American servicemen were overseas, they heard their British allies go on and on about how these Rolexes were so reliable and how the company had made this amazing replacement service for them. And so once the war was over,

many Americans had this newfound appreciation for these watches. And while Rolex had never found much success in the States prior to the war, after the war the brand became this go to choice for Americans who wanted what they saw as a classy wrist watch. Well, speaking of classy wrist watches, did you know that the world's first calculator watch was sold exclusively through these high end retailers like

Tiffany and uh Neiman Marcus. That's pretty funny to imagine yeah, I mean it sounds ridiculous because we mostly think of like calculator watches as almost like tacky plastic slabs that nerds used to wear in the eighties. But before companies like Cassio and Saco took the design mainstream in late seventies and early eighties, calculator watches were almost more of

a luxury item. So I guess if you took the timing of that, it does make sense like we were still a decade or two away from computers being common fixtures in the home. So this idea of having like a mini computer, although it's you know, incredibly basic one strapped to your risk, probably did seem like a little bit of a luxury. But I mean the real question is how much were they charging for these things if

they were being sold at Tiffany of all places. Yeah, so I was curious about this too, And it turns out when the first calculator watches were released in nine they were cast in solid gold and they retailed for about four thousand dollars, and for reference, at the time, a year of tuition at Harvard cost about two hundred bucks less than that. So depending on how much do you had, you could either attend an Ivy League school, or you could wear a tiny computer on your wrist.

That's a tough choice. I'm not sure which I decide on that. Actually I was curious, so I've been using my own calculator watch while you're saying, or just my computer to check the inflation on that number. So if you do the math in today's any that golden calculator watch would cost you nearly eighteen thousand dollars. So I don't know, Mago. I don't want to hurl any accusations, but I think they might have been overcharging just a

little bit for those things. Yeah, I think a lot of folks agreed with you even back then, And it took a year or so for the same company to come out with what they build as an economy version of the calculator watch. These were made of steel instead of gold, and the result was that they only cost about fifty dollars or you know, right around two dollars after inflation and from their competitors drove the price even lower, with these cheaper models costing under twenty bucks by the

early eighties. I like how it's either fifty dollars or four thousand dollars. It seems like a little bit of a jump there. But all right, Well, before we wrap things up for this episode, we did promise at the outset that we'd circle back to the infamous moon Watch, and I can tell from the white Tristan keeps flashing

his wrist that he's gonna hold us to that promise. Well, lucky for us, there's a story that we both wanted to tell anyway, because and off, a lot of attention gets paid to Neil Armstrong, and you know, as the first man on the Moon, that's certainly warranted. But the downside of that focus is that the other lunar pioneers tend to get overlooked, including, among others, the Mega speed Master a k. The first Watch on the Moon, which is just a grave and justice the time pieces everywhere,

no question. But wouldn't this just take us back to Armstrong. I mean, he was wearing a speed Master on the Apollo eleven missions, so wasn't his the first watch on the Moon? Well that's the thing. The electronic timer and the lunar module had malfunctioned during the mission, so Armstrong actually had to leave his watch behind before ever setting

foot on the Moon. So that actually means that while buzz Aldren ultimately became the second man on the Moon, it was his speed Master that became the first watch on the Moon. You know, I bet that continues to be like this big consolation for Buzz to be able to brag about that. But all right, well, now we know why it's called the moon Watch. Let let's back up from it and talk about why the speed Master was the right watch for the job. And just be clear,

several watches made it into space before the Speedmaster. Both Russians and Americans had used watches in orbit will before the Apollo missions, but in order to survive an actual spacewalk, NASA knew that the average wristwatch wasn't going to cut it. And that was because whichever watch made it onto the Moon but not only need to be water and temperature resistant, but shockproof and most importantly, capable of withstanding twelve g s of acceleration. So to that in an engineer at

NASA named James Reagan. He was tasked with writing out the specs for such a watch and sending them to potential manufacturers. According to Reagan, the secrecy and the complexity of the lunar landing made the specs nearly impossible to decipher. So, as he put it, the watch packs were so nebulous that people couldn't even tell what we were going to

do with them. Yeah, I remember reading that even though NASA approached like ten different companies, only for them ever actually submitted watches to be evaluated, and those tests went on for months. I think, like one of the watches was limited because it had this like crack crystal during decompression. One had hands of the watch that actually worked in

the test of it. And in the end, the Mega Speedmaster was the only watch to meet all of those requirements, and to this day it's still the only watch that's ever been flight qualified by NASA. I mean, it's definitely an impressive track record, especially when you look at the crucial role that the watch has played in later missions.

For instance, everybody knows how trouble the Apollo thirteen mission was, but what a lot of people forget is that the crew likely wouldn't have made it back to Earth if not for their speed Masters. And you know, they had to shut down their computers just to be able to save power, and so the crew managed to navigate their way home using measurements gleaned from their handwound watches. Yeah, I mean, you'll sometimes hear the complaint that our increased

focus on timekeeping has made humans slaves to time. Like I feel like you hear this criticism a lot. It was a criticism that was leveled at pocket watch is and risk watches back in the day, and now we hear the same thing about the ever present watches on our smartphones or computer screens. But I do think it's worth remembering that our session with marking and tracking time

has also led to tons of positive outcomes. You know, it's saved astronauts from and otherwise uncertain doom, and uh, it also lets us know when it's time to go downstairs and get a big bowl of ramen. So you know, having a clock definitely has its benefits. Yeah, I mean, it's a that's a pretty important role that it plays.

But all right, so what do you say we set the clock for a fact off and then we can go scarf some of those noodles that you're talking about, Because now I'm wondering, yes, please, So how about we start with the fact about the author of A Brief History of Time? Do you know that at Stephen Hawkings funeral it was made clear that time travelers were welcome, and this was somewhat of a nod to a party invitation Hawking at once sent out into as a nine.

It read quote, you are cordially invited to a reception for time travelers hosted by Professor Stephen Hawking, to be held in the past at the University of Cambridge Gonville at Caius College. I'm sure I said those colleges wrong. Hawking had of course already thrown the party back in June of that year, and he sent out the invitation later to make sure that only time travelers would show up. Unfortunately, he was left a party alone in a decorated room

with a banner that read welcome time Travelers. That's a bomber. I think that probably would have changed history just a little bit of wow. All right, So did you know that the times on the boards at Grand Central Station

are intentionally off by a full minute? Now? This is, of course, because it can be dangerous when passengers are rushing and end up falling or colliding with each other, and this means that the trains are actually pulling out of the station a minute after the posted departure times. This may seem trivial, but the ideas that those heading quickly to a train may relax just a little bit

know that they're going to get there. And the studies actually backed this up because Grand Central actually has one of the lowest rates of slips and falls of all the major stations in the US. I love that there's a measurement of this, but that's pretty impressive. That's it is. I think about that every time I go to Grand Central from now long. You know, I feel like we can't have an episode on time and not talk about cuckoo clocks. So I'm here to tell you about the

world's largest cuckoo clock. It's in Triburg, Germany. The bird alone is fourteen feet long and weighs three pounds. The pendulum is another twenty six feet and ways two hundred twenty pounds. So this is not a petite clock. Right there, There's another clock that's trying to edge in for the claim to be the largest cuckoo clock in the world. It's in Sugar Creek, Ohio. This clock is twenty three ft tall and twenty four ft wide, and Guinness has

yet to declare one of them winners. So I think we should just celebrate the fact that there are two unbelievably large cuckoo clocks out there. That definitely seems worth celebrating. That is funny. I like the idea that Guinness is is like ignoring to wait on some even bigger clock.

They're just not going to pay attention yet. Well, when you look at the working hours of the richest Americans today versus a few decades back, it's interesting to see that the wealthier working much longer now than they used to.

And that makes the findings from a study out of the Anderson School of Management this is a u c l A that much more interesting because in a study of four thousand people, or a survey of four thousand people at various age, employment, and income levels, when people were asked whether they would take more money or more time if they could get it, about two thirds of the people chose money. But the study found that those who chose time over money were generally happier people, and

this was after controlling for various income level. So it is pretty interesting to see that. Huh, so I forgot to mention as Stephen Hawking factorlier did you know that A Brief History of Time was on the London Sunday Times bestseller list for an unbelievable two hundred thirty seven weeks after it published. And this which is so many weeks of people pretending to understand what they were ready,

that is years. That really is unbelievable. I will say I have to admit every time I would see somebody holding that book, even though it is a fascinating read, you you do have this tendency to look at and be like, do you really understand what this book is saying? Because I'm not sure I did. But all right, well I've got a quick one too. I decided we should throw in effect about Cindy Lauper because of her song

Time after Time. And I didn't realize this, but her debut solo album, which was called She's So Unusual, came out three and it was the first debut female album to have four songs hit the top five on the charts, which is unbelievable. So it included Time after Time. And of course girls just want to have fun. You know what, I have a song fact as well. It's about the song time is on my side? You mean like that's the that's the Rolling Stones, right, Yeah, that's the one.

So it was actually first written by Jerry Raggaboy and performed by a jazz from bonist Kaiwinde, but then soul singer Irma Thomas and of course the Rolling Stones made it a song almost everyone knew, and it became the Rolling stones first top ten hit in the US. You know, I feel like we we both ended up with facts that had to do with songs with the word time

in them. So I've got a challenge for you here, mango, What do you say that we have a little bit of a back and forth where we have to name songs with the word time and the title, and then you also have to give the name of the performer or performers. What do you say to this? Yeah, I'm up for this. All right, you go first, Let's see how far we can go. Uh if I could turn back time with share? Oh I thought that you started out with the Share, when I'm gonna start out with

one that's like equally respectable. Just the song Time of course by Hootie and the Blowfish during our high school years. UM Summertime by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, Nice you went a little more sophisticated there. Um for the Longest Time, or maybe it's just called the Longest Time by Billy Joel? Did anyone really know what time it is? Chicago? Nice? Tomorrow is a Long Time by Bob Dylan, One More Time by Daft Punk Nice. All right, I've got a

great one, maybe the best of all time. I've had the time of my life, you know from Dirty Dancing? Yeah? Who sings that? Wait? Oh no, there's so many other songs I could have chosen. Wait, wait, wait, I should get credit because nobody knows who's sang this? Right? Was it pet Crazy? Yeah? It's a Patrick Swayzy original. Yeah. Yeah, I'm gonna look at up fair Bill Medley and Jennifer Warrens. Come on, nobody even knows that that? Why did I

go with that? But you know what, I'm gonna play true to the game and I'm gonna give it to you. You you have one today, Congratulations, Thank you so much. Now, I'm sure we forgot a lot of terrific facts about watches and time and clocks and all of that, and we always love hearing those facts from you, so please send those to us. Part time Genius at how stuff Works dot com. You can also hit us up on Facebook or Twitter, but as always, thanks so much for listening. Yea,

thanks again for listening. Part Time Genius is a production of How Stuff Works and wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people who do the important things we couldn't even begin to understand. Tristan McNeil does the editing thing. Noel Brown made the theme song and does the MIXI mixy

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