On the Clock

The TIME has come to wrap up the final unit of LST - Light, Sound, Time. Time is defined as the indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future regarded as a whole. It is a point that is measured in hours and minutes past midnight or noon (Time, 2020). Though time has no end, this unit felt much shorter than both Light and Sound. We, mostly, reviewed the different ways time can be measured, what time is like in different places, tools that help calculate time, and some celestial objects - such as, the Sun - because they play a big role in how we view every single minute. Speaking of celestial objects, we went to the Alder Planetarium, on Chicago's Museum Campus, to become educated on a few space facts. Through that, we learned how things we see in the sky, like constellations, can tell us about the current month, time, and location of that time on Earth. For the final Action Project in LST, we were assigned to make a visual of our own time telling device and present it in the form of a video. The requirements for it are to make it completely original (not a modified version of an already existing one), give it a meaningful way to tell time, and have the design target a certain audience. It is similar to the Design and Engineering AP I did back in 2019, which I loved! I hope you enjoy!
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My time telling device is called the Water Skipper. It is both a calendar and an automatic watering device for plant enthusiasts. When I was given the assignment to design my own idea for a time telling device, water was the first thing that came to mind. Early water clocks fell into two categories: outflow and inflow (Lamb, 2020). An outflow water clock is when the inside of a container is marked with lines for measurement. Water leaks out of the container and time is measured by how much the water level has changed. An inflow water clock is similar, however, the water drips into a second container with measurements inside (Lamb, 2020). The Water Skipper is an outflow water clock.

Normally, I pay attention to time passing by in weeks. At first, I visualized a test tube filling up with water. I started putting all of my thoughts into a digital design I thought would work. Below is an image of my original idea:

Illustrated by SN

It is a jug of water placed on top of a water dispenser. The dispenser would release tiny drops of water every minute. The water would fill the test tube, with every inch representing a week. The test tube would measure up to four weeks. The piece of paper attached to the design was going to be used for writing reminders on. It would say things like, "Visit grandma when the water reaches two inches." It may have been effective in a sense of telling time by weeks, but I was struck by a better idea. My peers and I were working on our APs during class, and my friend sitting next to me gave me some feedback on my device. They said it would be easier to tell time with it if it was measured with the water already inside the jug at the top. Immediately, I thought of something like a watering can, and began drawing a new design for the Water Skipper. Below is the image of my final design:

Illustrated by SN

The Water Skipper is an automatic watering can for your plants, which highlights both the date it begins to water, and the date it estimates to run out of water and needs to be refilled. It no longer measures time in weeks, but in the number of days it starts and stops watering your plant.

The reusable water jug has a height of 20 inches and a radius of 5.5 inches. If I take both of those numbers, square the radius, then multiply that and the height together with pi, I get the volume of 1,900.7 inches. If we take the radius of jug and multiply it by 2pi, we get a circumference of 34.56 inches.

For a presentation of the Water Skipper, please watch the video below. 




The Water Skipper is an outflow water clock that measures time in days, while watering your favorite houseplant. In the time of sundials, water clocks were a great and reliable alternative. Over time, water clocks became more complicated and difficult to maintain, so people stopped making them. With today's modern instruments and tools, I think we can bring back the water clock and have it serve a second purpose. If I had the chance to develop this idea more, I would probably have the container collect rainwater. This would be a more environmentally responsible feature.
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CITATIONS

Lamb, Robert. “How Water-Powered Clocks Work.” HowStuffWorks Science, HowStuffWorks, 27 Jan. 2020, science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-tech/sustainable/water-powered-clock1.htm.

“Time.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, 2020, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/time.

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