Since this is I’m gonna explain my question the same way.
Imagine there is a time-hating wizard who magically removes all time-keeping instruments like atomic clocks, phones and watches, so there is no way of knowing the time right now. If then we were asked to ‘bring back’ the old time that we used (e.g. so that we start again measuring 12:00 in London exactly when it was 12:00 in London before the wizard) could this be done? Is there something physical constant (like kg or meter) that determines what time of day it is? Or, did someone just say “we start measuring time from now, and I say that it is exactly 14:32…”?
Also, if there is this constant that allows us to know exactly when a certain time is, doesn’t that mean we don’t need atomic clocks and can just compare ourselves to this constant? Idk what this would be but perhaps when the sun is absolutely highest in the sky somewhere?
In: 40
It would be some astronomical way, using the sun or other stars passing in front of some optical device. You’d also have to align that device somehow, probably using gravity. Hard to tell how precise you could get like that, but for one second resolution it would have to be able to differentiate angles as small as a “cake” devided into 86400 pieces. Maybe even the gravity of a mountain near you could distort your measurement, because the device would be misaligned(?)
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