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March 11, 2005

Strange But True!

Q. Would modern mechanical clocks be any different if they had been invented in the Southern Hemisphere?

A. Clock predecessors were ancient sundials, whose shadows north of the equator move in a "clockwise" pattern, as we say it today. This is an accident of history since mechanical clocks originated in the Northern Hemisphere, but had they been invented in Argentina or Australia or South


 
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