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Time runs incessantly. Time pieces, such as clocks and
watches attempt to accurately track the passing of time,
the
more accurately the better the time piece. The heart of a
time
piece is the movement which defines the rate the time
indicators progress, such as the hands on an analog watch
or
clock or the digits in a digital time piece. Accurate and
reliable time pieces are certainly useful and sometimes
even
necessary for example, to efficiently coordinate public
transport such as buses, trains and airplanes, their
passengers
and crew and other industries such as manufacturing
facilities
where time is of the essence and just in time
operations.
But there are occasions when accurate time is not
necessarily
advantageous. An acute example is the taking of tests and
exams. As most persons as students have experienced, time
as
measured by accurate time pieces seems to run quicker
during
an examination, often running out of time before answers
to
exams can be written down for the teacher to grade.
Thus, there is the need for a time piece to run slower than
accurate, slow enough to allow all answers to an exam or
test
to be expressed completely and accurately. I propose the
Test-Time-Piece with a slower movement than an accurate
time piece, a movement paced to the needs of the student
not
the teacher.
[link]
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Simpler to accelerate the student up to high relativistic velocity, where time dilatation effects become pronounced. Time would genuinely pass more slowly outside the student's frame of reference compared to their own "local" time. No tinkering with clocks required, just a vehicle capable of traveling at near lightspeed. |
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[el dueno]! Welcome back! We were about to go out and
look for you. |
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Does each student get an individual Test-Time-Piece? Heart rates may still mess up your admirable goal. |
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Problem with accelerating the test subject to relativistic speeds is the common requirement to remain in the exam room for the duration of the test. Possible solutions include, 1. also accelerating the exam room to relativistic speeds; 2. having a very large exam room; 3. wearing compression underwear and using a centrifuge to attain high speeds without leaving the room. |
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We consider that [1] is the most practical solution. |
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The timepiece could contain an imp* trained in explaining why jokes are funny, listing sports scores, and reciting Latin liturgy in order to make time pass more slowly for semi-euthanized listeners. |
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Previous experiments resulted in an inordinately long-lasting hegemony for the catholics, inexplicably high salaries for sports stars, and four decades of the 1950s. |
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*retrained, from the Discworld Disorganizer, thank you Pratchett. |
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// four decades of the 1950s. // |
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In New Zealand, they've managed to stretch it to six, and it looks like they're hanging on for the century (unlike their cricket team). |
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