Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Moiré Clock

Slowly rotating optical clock
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A clock composed of two flat discs, one stationary and the other arranged to rotate once per 12 or 24 hours.

The stationary disc would have concentric bands of radial patterns, the outer one for hours, middle for minutes, inner for seconds. The hours pattern might have 48 wedges, the minutes, a few hundred wedges, and the seconds as many as are readable from a distance.

The rotating disc would have almost the same pattern, with one less element in each ring.

The net result would be an image of a rapidly moving pattern which would repeat once a minute for the "second hand," a slower moving "minute hand," and the outer "hours hand" would rotate once or twice per day.

csea, Aug 31 2010

Sort of like this, but with a different pattern http://www.youtube....watch?v=l5Sl_Lqpkvo
Imagine 3 concentric rings. [csea, Aug 31 2010]

Sherlock Holmes http://mrwhitney.co...iticalthinking.html
A critical thinker. [8th of 7, Aug 31 2010]

Moire animation sculpture Moire_20animation_20sculpture
shameless self promotion [xaviergisz, Sep 01 2010]

Vernier scale http://en.wikipedia.../wiki/Vernier_scale
The reason for one less element in one of the rings. [csea, Sep 01 2010]

A Vernier Watch http://www.gizmology.net/watch.htm
Only useful result of search for "vernier clock". [baconbrain, Sep 01 2010]

Moiré pointer for measurement instruments http://www.unappel....pointer/a28-web.htm
Wow... who knew? cf. Fig. 12 [csea, Sep 01 2010]

[link]






       So it's sort of like the Moiré clock in the video you linked to?
baconbrain, Aug 31 2010
  

       The thing in the link isn't a clock, as far as I can see.   

       I like this idea, if I understand it correctly. The idea is to have the "interference fringes" (so to speak) play the role of the hands, no?   

       If so, I think this is an exceptionally cool idea.
MaxwellBuchanan, Aug 31 2010
  

       Well, the vid info under the window says:   

       toolusinganimal | March 15, 2007   

       moire clock Category:   

       Howto & Style Tags:   

       * moire * clock   

       ------   

       If it moves like a clock and it looks like a clock, it's a clock. And it's made from a clock, I think.   

       I like the idea, really, and it is different from the vid in that it has the rotating disc with one less element in each ring, and a couple other ways.   

       But when the title is the same as the tags of something else, I want a bit more explication somewhere. [ ]
baconbrain, Aug 31 2010
  

       Ah, OK, so the youtube thing shows a clock. Right.   

       Can you tell me what time it's showing in the video?
MaxwellBuchanan, Aug 31 2010
  

       No. But, it could rotate the axis of the pattern to show hours.   

       I Googled the title and found : Rotational moire timepiece United States Patent 5586089 A timepiece having a plurality of plates (12, 14, 16) in place of the standard hour, minute and second's hands, printed with patterns of open and opaque areas (52). As these plates rotate, novel and stimulating visual effects in the form of multiple moire images (54) are produced.   

       Okay, I do not see a video that shows time through Moiré. Those are made from clocks, but they are not useful as timepieces.
baconbrain, Aug 31 2010
  

       Well, fair enough. I'm not sure exactly how the patented device looks, though.
MaxwellBuchanan, Aug 31 2010
  

       I do like the idea. And I will say that there must be different ways to make Moiré patterns work. There is something I especially like about this one, so I will bun. (Actually, I bunned at the first reading.)   

       The "one less element in each ring" happens to be the secret of the Norden bombsight, which my dad rediscovered and couldn't get patented.
baconbrain, Aug 31 2010
  

       // If it moves like a clock and it looks like a clock, it's a clock. And it's made from a clock, I think. //   

       Are you not committing the "capital mistake to theorize in advance of the facts" ?   

       <link>
8th of 7, Aug 31 2010
  

       Oh, Honey, I commit cardinal sins far worse than that.
baconbrain, Aug 31 2010
  

       Do you have pictures ? Even better, video ?   

       We can pay ...
8th of 7, Aug 31 2010
  

       Ask your mom if she kept the pictures. :)   

       Yes, I was leaping to conclusions. My apologies.   

       Still, I had already croissanted and was asking for more explanations.   

       I looked up patent 5586089 on Google Patents and saw pictures. My brain hurts.   

       This is different. I am going to go croissant another one of [cseas] ideas now.
baconbrain, Aug 31 2010
  

       Hmm, I didn't catch the googled patent, but it looks substantially more complex than I had imagined.   

       My technique should work (?) and would be much simpler.
csea, Sep 01 2010
  

       I think you might be confusing Moire patterns with something that more closely resembles 'scanimation'.   

       Moire patterns are formed at the intersection of overlapping lines, whereas scanimation uses overlapping patterns to mask the underlying pattern.   

       Actually, I can't figure out how the idea — as you've described — would work. Could you provide illustrations?
xaviergisz, Sep 01 2010
  

       Here's a [link] that may help.
csea, Sep 01 2010
  

       Figure 8 in csea's link seems to be the key.
MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 01 2010
  
      
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