Who, how and when decided to count to a second and was like “Yup. This is it. This is a second. This is how long a second is. Everybody on Earth will universally agree that this is how long a second is and use it regardless of culture, origin, intelligence or beliefs”?
In: 1035
Everyone else has covered the history of sundials and other ancient methods of timekeeping. Fyi a primary driver of more accurate mechanical timekeeping was navigation in the age of sail. With the aid of a ship’s chronometer tracking the time of your nation’s prime meridian you can use the chronometer time of noon (when the sun is highest in the sky) at your current location to calculate longitude, and the angle of sun at noon at your current location and date to determine latitude. That allows you to determine with a decent degree of accuracy where you are on the globe even in the middle of the ocean.
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