TIME IN YOUR LIFE

An often fascinating little volume tells of time in its many facets from the development of workable clocks to the more metaphysical meanings of time's passage. A general introduction prepares by way of discussing the slipperiness of the present, some cultural values we place on time and the ways in which we use rhythmical patterns in nature as our basic clocks. Immediately following chapters show the particulars of the cyclical patterns of sun and moon and stars, different types of calendars, and how to make a perpetual calendar. Man-made clocks are then shown as they are based on cycles and as they became more efficient through the ages. Lastly and most interestingly, there are the recent discoveries of radioactive age tellers and even of a ""language clock"" developed by semanticists who compared related tongues to find they differed from mother tongues- at the same rate.