Max introduction
Did you ever wonder how people kept time before the invention of clocks? 
clock
A Roman bending over
People like the ancient Romans used the sun itself with a device called a sundial. 
As the Earth turned throughout the day, the sun would move across the sky.
sun over sky
This would make the shadow of the marker move around the sundial.
 Roman rainOf course, on cloudy days, the best they could do was guess!
Hey Home Crew, make a clock for a cloudy day!
what you need
button
  A plastic 1 liter bottle
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  A foam or paper cup
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  A watch or clock with a second hand
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  A ruler
button  A pen
button  Water
button  Masking tape
what to do
one
 With the help of an adult, cut the top off a 1 liter plastic bottle about 3 inches from the top.
two
 Stick a piece of masking tape on the outside of the bottle, from the top to the bottom. Make it as straight as you possibly can.
bottle
three
 Poke a small hole in the bottom of the cup with a tack or a pen.  Place the cup snugly into the top of the bottle.
four
 Get your timer ready.  Pour water into the cup, and start timing right away.  Keep the cup about halfway full, so the water runs out steadily.  If you do this with a friend, one person can watch the time and one can mark the tape.
five
 When 30 seconds have gone by, mark the water level on the tape.  Do this every 30 seconds for 5 minutes.
                              Were the marks on the tape evenly spaced out?
number 6
 Put another piece of tape on the bottle, right next to your first piece of tape. This time, mark the water level every minute. Do this for 5 minutes.
Did any of your marks match up with marks from the first test? 
Do you think this is an accurate way to keep time?
e-mail results
more facts
max talks We all know that 60 seconds make a minute, 60 minutes make an hour, and 24 hours make a day, but where these numbers come from is a bit of a mystery. 

It all seems to go back to the Babylonians, people who lived thousands of years ago near the Persian Gulf. 

The Babylonians had a fascination with multiples of the number 6.  Their year was 360 days long. They also invented sundials, dividing the period of daylight into 12 segments which eventually became hours. 

Today, we use multiples of 6 in our own measurements of time! 
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