The Ticking Clock

In the previous post we saw that what a clock really measures is a in change position. The hour hand measures 1/24th of the rotation of the earth about its axis which we call an hour. The minute hand measures 1/60th of 1/24th or 1/1440th of a rotation of the earth about its axis which we call a minute. It measures change as measured in uniform and equal "ticks" of the change in the clock hands. 

Now comes the interesting part. The change in distance traveled between ticks depends upon from where observe the change. If you are standing on the tip of the minute hand, the distance you travel in 60 "ticks" is the circumference of the circle traced as you make a complete rotation about the center of the clock. But if you are standing on the minute hand at the center of rotation, the distance you travel in 60 "ticks" is 0, zilch, nada. You didn't move any distance at all. You are at exactly the same position after 60 "ticks" of the minute hand. Finally, if you are standing midway between the center of rotation and the tip of the minute hand, you would have traveled only 7/10th as far as if you were standing on the tip. 

Thus we arrive at what we know commonly as speed which is measured distance traveled per "tick" of some reference clock. You say that you traveled 60 miles between "ticks" of an hour clock or 60 miles per "tick" of the hour hand of the reference clock or 1 mile per "tick" of the second hand of the reference clock.

But what you are actually measuring as speed is the distance travels as 1/24th the rotation of the earth about its axis (hour "ticks of the clock) and 1/1440ths of the rotation of the earth about its axis (minute "ticks" of the clock.

And so it is that speed is a relativistic unit of measurement ... just as Galileo told us it was 500 years ago. ago.

And once again we needed make no reference to anything called "time". The clock only helped us keep track of change in one thing relative to the change in another.