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Why hasn't anybody made an epicycle clock yet? (yes there are clocks with epicyclic mechanisms, but I mean the display!)

For your consideration, one with just an hour and a minute epicycle, and also one with a seconds epicycle just for fun.

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in reply to Sophie πŸŽ²πŸ§©πŸ³οΈβ€βš§οΈ

Honestly, I think this would be easier to read than a traditional clock.

What's that? Figuring out a mechanism so each hand spins at the end of the previous one? Eh, not my problem :p

in reply to Sophie πŸŽ²πŸ§©πŸ³οΈβ€βš§οΈ

I guess the only downside is the minutes in the middle of each hour will feel like they are going slower since the end of the hand isn't moving as fast?

honestly though who cares about those minutes? I want HD time at the start and end of the hour!

in reply to Sophie πŸŽ²πŸ§©πŸ³οΈβ€βš§οΈ

Okay, I have a working prototype (which spent way too long to make, why am I coding on an iPad???)

I have quickly realised that the hour markers are not in the wrong place because of a bug, I just misunderstood how the thing would work.

I’ll look into a fix tomorrow but for now (as you can see), it’s late. I need sleep.

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in reply to Sophie πŸŽ²πŸ§©πŸ³οΈβ€βš§οΈ

Okay I couldn’t sleep so I just solved the issue. Rotation needs to be based on β€˜parent’ epicycle rotations, which is not really a behaviour of epicycles usually but whatever, this makes a cool clock. I’ll fix it up with numbers tomorrow and share it.
in reply to Sophie πŸŽ²πŸ§©πŸ³οΈβ€βš§οΈ

A friend commented that if the curve were inside out, then the hands would be coincident on the hour and opposite on the half-hour. This might feel more natural. Maybe?

(All the analog clocks in my house are counterclocks, so it’s not like I can be sure what feels natural.)

in reply to Andrew Plotkin

That's not a counter-clock, it's an anti-clock. You can tell because it goes anti-clockwise. That, and the fact that it disappears in a flash of light whenever it encounters a regular clock.
This entry was edited (1 year ago)
in reply to Sophie πŸŽ²πŸ§©πŸ³οΈβ€βš§οΈ

@Sophie πŸŽ²πŸ§©πŸ³οΈβ€βš§οΈ
I love the fact that the minutes are given by the angle between the spears (same for seconds).

Now wouldn't it be fun to do the same thing with days (of the year) and hours instead? This would approximately describe the orbit of a place on earth around the sun (I mean if it was real scale, which would make it unreadable, so that was actually a bad idea πŸ˜‚ )

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