From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!floyd!vax135!ariel!houti!lime!burdvax!psuvax!sysred
Newsgroups: net.misc
Title: A Relavtistically Simple Question
Article-I.D.: psuvax.1153
Posted: Tue Jan 18 12:51:08 1983
Received: Thu Jan 20 06:52:25 1983

I submitted this to net.physics with no response.  Is the
answer too obvious to bother answering, has net.physics
disappeared or is everyone afraid to flame about a question
that can be investigated experimentally (thanks to D. Wall
for the last observation!)?  Come on, gang, turn up those
burners to full broil and tell me the answer!!
====================================================================

Here's the scenario:  I have a digital clock in my office.
I neglected to reset it for Eastern Standard Time last fall,
so it's still an hour ahead.  Someone walks into my office and
gives me a hard time about the fact that my clock's an hour
off (actually, I'm just a few months ahead of fixing it next
spring...).  So, we start making funny conjectures about how
to set the right time.  With a subconscious memory of previous
net.physics discussions running around inside my ahead, I
propose to speed up the clock (a LOT!!) until it relativistically
slows down and loses the hour.  How to do this, you ask?  Well,
suppose the line cord is REAL strong, and I swing it around my
head REAL fast to make the clock lose the hour.

It's a digital clock and counts line frequency signals to keep time.
Where do the extra pulses on the line go?  X pulses go in, and
X come out, but the clock sees X-(however many it needs to lose
an hour).  Right?

				- Ralph Droms
				  Computer Science Dept.
				  Penn State (what does physics
				    have to do with football, anyway?)