I am familar with the binomial , normal, poisoon , and probability distributions. Can any of them, or others be used to describe the variation in time on a sundial or a watch , for example the time of true noon on the sundial as compared to time of 12 on a watch.
217172
It is called the equation of time. It isn't really statistics though.
664742
As to part one, I can not recommend any acceptable, known test for such data (perhaps what I've written below might work).\n\nAs to part two, this is a horrid approximation since the midrange as the mean is a major assumption (even more far-reaching than assuming something about the populations' probability distributions).\n\nFor part 3 and also part 1:\n\nThe first problem you run into is that you do not know anything about the nature of the population distribution (normal, uniform, etc).  Thus, a nonparametric test would be required.  I know of no nonparametric tests for any of the statistics you have (minimum, maximum or range).\n\nIf it is possible to obtain the actual values for each of the samples in each set, the Kruskal-Wallis test should suffice.  It is nonparametric, so there are no problems with the requirement of assumptions about population distributions.\n\nFurther, its job is to determine if two samples are far enough apart such that the null hypothesis that the population distributions are the same can be rejected.  This would give you what you desire.\n\nAs far as your problem is concerned, the only statistics you have are minimum, maximum and range.   Perhaps one could derive a test to test the minima or maxima of each set, but one still runs into the problem that there can be no parameter placed on the population distribution.\n\nIf you can make an assumption about the distributions of the populations of interest (normal or whatnot), then it would be possible to derive such a test.  This would be a tedious task, however, as it would require thorough knowledge of order statistics and distribution functions.\n\nOne would need to use a test statistic based of off the difference in the two statistics that you use (I would use the maxima since they are further apart than the minima and probability distributions for ranges are uncharted territory unless you're a Ph.D.).  Thus, your test statistic is based off of the difference between the maxima (Y(n) - Z(n) where the (n) are subscripts, which is 2 in this case).\n\nTo perform this test, you would need to derive the probability distribution of the difference of the two maxima and use that to find the probability of the difference being two or greater.  This is quite a task for anyone and requires a large amount of knowledge in mathematical statistics.  I believe I could perform such a task, but it would likely take some time to complete.\n\nRemember though that you must make a critical assumption about the population before you can even do this.  I would recommend using the assumption of uniformity if you are unsure of the populations' distributions.  This is because the derived test would then be least likely to give a type I error, where you reject the data improperly, because the test is less likely to reject.
270806
Excellent question!\n\nDear Yahoo!: \nWhy do most of the watch ads display the time as 10:10? \nSamina\n \n \nDear Samina: \nWe've never noticed this phenomenon, but you're absolutely right. A Yahoo! Shopping search on "watches" results in plenty of timepieces reading 10:10. Of course, there is some variation on the theme: 10:05, 10:08, 10:12, etc. We also found a few left-field entries: 8:20, 4:30, 2:35. \nBut for the most part, watch ads stick to roughly 10:10. Strangely, we also found plenty of digital watches set to the same time. This is obviously some kind of advertising standard. Why? Did some famous watch inventor die at 10 past 10? What's the significance? \n\nAccording to a reliable source, the reason is purely aesthetic. A watch reading 10:10 has a clean, symmetrical look. Also, the hands don't obscure the watchmaker insignia, which is usually located directly below 12 o'clock. \n\nApparently, the practice started in the 1920s, and it stuck. For a great history of the 24-hour analog clock, check out Pete Boardman's web site. \n\n \nLoad the link below, the answer includes links to pictures of watches
503241
It didn't quite happen that way.\n\nPeople used the sun and sun dials for a long time before our current system of time. Then they started tracking night-time times with water-clocks and similar things.\n\nBut there weren't universally recognized time systems, or such things as our current standard hours and minutes.\n\nWhen clocks (as we know them) began to be made, there wasn't a universal, world-wide time setting.\n\nMonks created the first machines to measure time, to "sound" the time for their religious rituals. (They didn't have universal standards, but varied by place and religious order.)\n\nAround 1330 he got our standard hour.\n\nTowns started building clock towers to sound time for the town (people didn't have their own clocks yet), measuring time from noon to noon or maybe sunset to sunset (or maybe it varied) in 24 1-hour increments.\n\nMinutes came much later.\n\nI don't know when we started world-wide synchronization.
217669
Probability theory is the branch of mathematics that helps assess the chances that something will or will not occur. One of the tools is using probability distributions to model processes in real life.  If the distribution "fits" the process well, predictions can be made about how often events might occur.\n\nThe process might be a coin toss (Bernoulli), the rate at which people arrive at the food line in McDonalds (Poisson), the rate at which new products fail (Weibull).  Once you have an appropriate model, you can say "what are the chances that I'll get 5 heads in a row", if I average 5 people an hour in my food line, what might be the "peak" rate at which I can expect people to arrive.".\n\nNow, to answer your question -- this is difficult.  You haven't provided enough information about the situation or the process to be able to give you any specific guidance.
348126
There are no terms for that.  Time is artificial. You can use whatever you want.  I would say "our clocks".
523050
Don't confuse the workings of clocks with the passage of time. Clocks, like any mechanical device, are prone to errors and can fail over time (no pun intended). The passage of time will happen whether we have clock to measure it or not. That makes no difference.\n\nWe now do have atomic clocks that utilize the radioactive decays of heavy elements as a measure of time and they are accurate to a billionth of a second, but even atomic clocks are NOT 100% accurate. So as with any measurements we make in the process of scientific study, there will be errors. But I think in most cases, the accuracy of an atomic clock is more than acceptable.
501661
at different times on the earth the sun is at different positions in the sky. When it's noon somewhere, it's midnight on the direct opposite side of the earth. If a particular time was called 12 noon to everyone it would seem silly to the people where it was midnight.
464447
They're made so the clock corresponds to daylight.  It was convenient to break the world into one-hour zones, which would give you 24.  The zones are determined by state and national boundaries and population concentrations, so they aren't perfectly straight north-south lines.  But the general result is that the sun is always about highest at noon, no matter where you are.  That only leaves the question of how we determine when we move from one day to the next.  That would be the international date line, running down through the Pacific ocean and carefully avoiding almost everything.
79143
Are you sure that "somm'd" is correct?  Check  the spelling please.\n\nI don't know what gamma and lambda are.  Are they test statistics?\n\nWhat do you need to know about scatter plots?  They are just x-y plots of data points.
203785
The link to Howstuffworks has good illustrations for a pendulum clock.  You may be able to improvise the parts for a project if you understand what is involved.  I know, a sundial would be easier.  Good luck.
260803
I think what you're looking for is the "equation of time", which is the difference between local mean time and local apparent time.  The term "difference" is used because "variance" has a very specific mathematical meaning.   Local apparent time is determined by the position of the sun in the sky.  local mean time is based on Greenwich Mean Time.  The difference occurs because GMT is based upon a fixed rotational rate, and local apparent noon is determined is by the maximum altitude of the sun in the sky.\n\nThe two time scales differ by as much as 15 minutes.  The web page below has more details.\n\nThere are formulas for this, but they are complex calculations.  The equation of time changes constantly, although the change is very slow, so a graph of the difference in 1980 is still mostly correct for 2006.  You'll be accurate to within a few seconds.
234573
u might have heard abt latitudes. Sun light constantly falls on earth. as earth moves different past of earth receives light and this is what we term as day and night. Latitudes help in determining times and it takes 15mins for sun to pass from one latitide to another. In other words we have time zones ever heard of green whtch time zone. This way, time is calculated with respect to sunrise and sunset. \n\nThus its all depending on how sunlight reaches in ur region..!
350761
The variations in the passing of time can only result from gravitational effects or relativistic effects. \n\nFor relativistic effects to be aparent, you have to be travelling at a speed comparable to the speed of light. Even then, there must be different velocities involved. Therefore night/day should not make a difference, unless he is referring to the fact that you are moving around in the day (thus, relatively time passes slower for you with respect to your surroundings) and stationary in the night. However, this does not make a noticable difference at all!\n\nAs for gravity, it is not something I know very well, and don't think it is really easy to explain, but it might have something to do with being farther away from the sun (by a length of earth's diameter) during the night. Again, this should not affect the passing of time almost at all.\n\nI suppose he really was trying to make a joke of some kind, maybe based on the fact that people go to sleep after much later than nightfall and wake up early with the first lights. Also, the twilight times are usually considered day rather than night.\n\nOR: He might be referring to the movement of the stars in the night sky and the movement of the sun during daytime.\n\nNevertheless, I think it's a pretty weird question, please message me if you learn the real answer.
299276
Is there a way to quantify/measure a value for solar radiation with respect to time, it seems to me like you could come up with a calculation based on the angle of the rays. However, I think you would run into some problems with exact calculations due to the nature of our atmosphere (i.e. moisture, dust, etc.)
119156
If a random experiment has two possible outcomes, success with proability  p and failure with probability q=1-p. And the experiment is repeated until a success happens. The number of trials before the success is a random variable  with density function\nf(x)=q^(x-1) * p     is called the geometric distribution.\n\n\nhttp://library.thinkquest.org/10030/6dpdgd.htm\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometric_distribution
286512
I believe that true time is simply another dimension we just haven't figured out how to move in any but one direction. Time as in seconds, minutes, etc are nothing but a random measurement we have placed on that axis; more random than how we chose inches, feet, or meters for the other axis'.