The clock always ran slowest just before the bell rang. Minutes would pass between each tick of the second hand, while the teacher droned interminably in the background. It was only natural that it became an object of fascination: how could it vary its rate so dramatically, while agreeing with our parents' watches at the beginning and end of each day?
This project contains a school clock: one which runs slightly fast for the first portion of a school period, and then compensates by slowing down during the last bit. It is, of course, completely configurable.
The clock is configured by four variables: beat, inflection, fade, and initialize.
beatis the period over which the clock repeats its cycle.inflectionis the point in real time at which the clock stops running fast and begins running slow. This must be smaller thanbeat.fadeis the reported time at theinflectionpoint. It must be betweeninflectionandbeat.initializeis the point in real time at which the clock starts.
Your school begins first period at 0830 daily. Class periods are one hour long. You therefore set initialize to 0830 and beat to one hour. You desire to have a fairly dramatic slowdown, so you set inflection to 54 minutes and fade to 59 minutes. Your clocks will then read as follows:
| Real Time | Reported Time |
|---|---|
| 08:30:00 | 08:30:00 |
| 08:57:00 | 08:59:30 |
| 09:24:00 | 09:29:00 |
| 09:27:00 | 09:29:30 |
| 09:30:00 | 09:30:00 |
This cycle of speeded and slowed time will then repeat indefinitely. At all times not recorded in the table, the reported time is linearly interpolated appropriately.
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>You know what would be fun to install in schools? An analog clock that runs slightly faster for most of the hour, and then slows down by a factor of 3 when the minute hand gets to X:58, so it takes 6 minutes to get to :00. (Ideally adjustable, in case the class ends at e.g. :35.)
— Eliezer Yudkowsky (@ESYudkowsky) March 19, 2019