On Time

Examines the ways humans have measured time throughout history and discusses the various units that are used to keep track of it.

Award-winning science writer Gloria Skurzynski takes young readers on a fascinating tour through the history of time measurement. She shows how humans learned to recognize time and measure it in smaller and smaller units - from Stonehenge, which marked the equinoxes; to Egyptian obelisks, which measured the hours; to modern-day atomic clocks, which split seconds into minuscule fractions.

Children's Literature

The concept of time is, by its very nature, both simple and complex. On a daily basis, people struggle to meet deadlines, be timely, and make good use of their time. Yet, what exactly is time and how have past societies attempted to measure it? These questions are addressed in this fascinating scientific study. The story begins with prehistoric human efforts to grasp the changing seasons. Later, people stopped relying solely upon lunar and solar traits to determine the date and time. They progressed to the development of calendars and various sundry approaches to chronology. Early sun dials, water clocks, and hourglasses are each presented as stages in mankind's efforts to measure time. As people reached out to travel the vast oceans or to use more complicated transport such as railroads, accuracy in time telling became increasingly essential. In the modern era, the boundaries between space and time have blurred as scientists observe the light of stars long extinct which has taken trillions of years to reach their eyes. All in all, this book provides a novel look at a subject that affects each of us all the time.