Author: Bal PhondkePublisher: National Book TrustYear: 2003Language: EnglishPages: 215ISBN/UPC (if available): 8123741030 DescriptionTime assumes a mystic, surreal character when one realizes that it has no beginning nor end. It is eternal. It flows only in one direction, from the past to the future, though mathematics tells us that there is no earthly reason why it cannot flow in the reverse direction.As if these absurdities were not enough, Albert Einstein queered the pitch by promulgating that time is the fourth dimension in which the Universe exists; that it is dependent on the frame of reference of the observer.Perhaps Einstein or Stephen Hawking who dared to write A Brief History of Time can claim to have understood time in its entirely. Mere mortals like us can only make a brave attempt to do so. This is one such attempt.ContentsACKNOWLEDGEMENTPREFACEWhen does a new millennium begin?What is time?Why do we need time?How can time be a fundamental entity?How can time be divided in parts?What is a leap year?What is intercalaris?What is a leap Second?What is Universal Time?How does one define a second?Day and night? Or only day?How is a month calibrated?What is a week?Who made the first clocks?The coming of water clocksInadequacy of water clocksBuilding of clock towersA pendulum keeps time, does it?What are quartz clocks?How does are calibrate an atomic clock?Swings of CaesiumWho needs greater accuracy?Enter EinsteinThe fourth dimensionWas Einstein right?Relativity of TimeHow does gravity affect time?What are time Shells?The paradox of twin brothersThe grandfather paradoxThe arrow of timeNature traps timeHow old is the fossil?How old is the Universe?Where is jet lag?What are time zones?Where does the new millennium begin?Onward to the new millennium
