A Brief History of Human Perception of Time II

Methods for determining the time of day logically ensued. Approximately five thousand years ago, Middle Eastern and North African cultures required efficient usage of time to standardize complicated bureaucracies and formal religions. During this period, the sundial and Clepsydras (water clocks) were prevalent. The more complicated civilization became, however, the more accurate timekeeping needed to be. With the enlightenment came mechanical clocks driven by springs, weights, and pendulums, and by the seventeenth century, resourceful inventors were able to create mechanisms accurate to under ten seconds a day. The trend for more accurate time continues even today with the development of atomic clocks precise to one-millionth of a second per year.