Puzzling title, huh? Not unintentionally, I’d say.
The Clock We Live On is the title of a remarkable book by Issac Asimov on basic astronomy. I don’t have any data to suggest that reading this book may turn ordinary men and women into astronomers. Still, I know two people, Rujuta and I, who are very happy reading it in its true spirit rather unbothered by the very pace of the passing Time a clock tries to measure.
Asimov is lucid in almost all his 600+ books. In this book, he presents astronomical observations and thoughts blended skillfully with their historical and cultural underpinnings in his signature clarity. He uses simple words and rich humor. A challenging topic that has beckoned human curiosity for millennia — Stargazing — is introduced in its almost timeless setting. One lives through the ages becoming a Babylonian, an Egyptian, a Hindu, a Chinese, a Greek, a Roman, a Latin, and ultimately a modern human being as one reads.
The title is thought-provoking. We hardly realize that we literally live on a giant clock, Mother Earth. The measurement of Time simply emerges because of the structure of our universe to the wandering and ever-wondering humans. The metaphor is perfect. As the physicist Neil Degrass Tyson has said elsewhere, it is hard to believe that a lion or a tiger after a sumptuous meal on a full moon night, while lying supine in the meadows, wonders that one day s/he will know enough about that bright body in front of his eyes to actually land on it.
All life forms are perhaps sentient, but as far as we know, only humans are endowed with curiosities capable of wondering about the celestial bodies. The great animal kingdom is clearly aware of them, but we are curious about them. And yet, millions of intelligent humans behave as if they are unaware of the drama that unfolds “up there” almost all the time, night and day! Perhaps we take all these things for granted. “What can be different from the new moon night to the full moon night every month?”, they ask. By asking “What can be different this Spring than a Spring 200 years ago?” they ignore this clock and apparently get back to work.
Asimov starts slowly and gains substantial speed. He does not dumb down the complications that arise from the objects’ apparent sights, locations, and motions. He does not explain it so much that everything is crystal clear. He leaves a lot of room for the reader to read between the lines, figure out, visualize, make mistakes, and correct them — in short, there’s a lot to wonder about and reason. It becomes a labyrinth of ambiguity but some things get illuminated along the way. And he lets you experiment with the minimum of equipment. You don’t need a telescope with a Dobsonian mount (it’d obviously be nice if you had it) or even expensive binoculars. You just need your senses and an inquisitive mind 1. We need clear skies, and our time must slow down.
Ask yourself if you really understand how phases of the moon occur, why the month is divided into roughly four weeks of seven days, why the sun is not directly overhead (at the zenith) at twelve noon in New York on the summer solstice, why the northern hemisphere people receive 7% less sunlight in June (when it’s summer there) than in January, and much more. Chances are that a random person in the street has never even wondered about this. I wish they referred to this book.
But forget about others. I think of myself. Countless questions gather in my mind about these celestial bodies and I sink into a ferociously thinking (and experimenting) worker mode as I try to unravel their answers. Oh, I love it! And I believe Rujuta, the quiet and curious tenth grader, does so too. Why, she even proved that “There is at least one Friday the thirteenth every year”! (Can you?)
Reading is never a passive activity. We referred to several websites, saw skymaps (skymaps.com has amazing skymaps), and challenged ourselves with the mundane and the difficult questions as we read through the book. It made us work and is still doing so. I am glad we picked up this book and started going through it leisurely. I made it a part of her Physics curriculum (for the ninth grade). Homeschooling helps you to be more free. I can’t imagine doing this basic astronomy course in a well-run school with “tight deadlines” and “clean classrooms where everyone does everything in a timely fashion”. We have skipped classes because the previous questions were unanswered and we wanted more time to figure them out. Is such a timeless (and unpredictable) pursuit possible in high schools? 2
The best part of all of this? The Internet Archive lets you borrow this book free of charge. You can take your time to read, introspect, and wonder. Go do it, now!
I am going to ask all my questions (there are many) to amateur astronomers, go to a nearby observatory, and spend at least one full month observing the nightly (and the daily) moon from a place with minimum light pollution (in the next 10 years). I hope you plan to do that too. I made these decisions after I read the book. It literally sprang me into action, the hallmark of any good book.
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