This Clock Measures Time in a Straight Line

According to full-time Instructables designer Jonathan Odom (aka JON-A-TRON), “No matter what Deepak Chopra tells you, time is linear.” He adds that, “Hopefully this clock is a little closer to reality than the circular ones we’re all used to.”

Putting aside the philosophical and scientific arguments about how time flows, Odom’s geared clock is quite interesting. It uses a rack and pinion gear setup for an hour slider on top of a minutes slider, divided into five-minute intervals. It’s powered by an Arduino Uno, as well as a pair of stepper motors to actuate the slider gears.

The clock was built at Autodesk’s Pier 9, and Odom notes that this project wouldn’t be accessible to someone without an extremely well-equipped shop. On the other hand, it is still rather awesome and/or inspirational, and a similar concept might not be too hard to pull off with slightly more basic tools!