Cleo (3:26)

Hey, rams.

Co-Host (3:27)

Hey, Cleo. Whatcha doin' Ah, just fishing in the Nile. It's lunchtime and I'm starving.

Cleo (3:35)

But isn't it breakfast time?

Co-Host (3:37)

Is it? Everything just kinda blends together. I'm tired of blinding my eyes, staring into the sun, trying to figure out what time it is. If only there was another way to use the sun to tell if it was breakfast time or lunchtime, or crazy dancing time.

Cleo (3:55)

I have an idea. I'll take this stick and ram it into the ground. Then I'll draw a circle around it. Next, I'll draw some markings around the circle. There. Now the shadow of the stick will move along with the sun, pointing to a specific dime. With that, you can figure out when it's breakfast time every day.

Co-Host (4:22)

That's amazing. What's it pointing to?

Host (4:25)

Now?

Cleo (4:25)

Another whiff of science.

Host (4:28)

The ancient Egyptians are believed to be the first to divide a day into equal parts using the world's oldest timekeeping device, the sundial. Sundials are still used today. You may have seen one in a garden somewhere. With the sundial, the Egyptians developed the 24 hour day. But why 24? It may seem like a random number, but there's a good reason for it. 24 divided by 2 is 12. And Egyptians cut the day into two halves, daytime and nighttime, with each side having 12 parts. At the time, 12 was an important number for the Egyptians. And can you guess why? Could it be, A, the Egyptians have 12 pyramids, B, the Egyptians used to count to 12 on one hand? Or C, donuts come in boxes of 12, and the ancient Egyptians loved donuts. Got your answer. Well, there are actually more than a hundred pyramids in Egypt, and doughnuts weren't invented until 1847. So the answer, believe it or not, is B, that the Egyptians used to count to 12 on one hand. Huh. But how did the Egyptians count to 12 on one hand when no hand has 12 fingers? Mine does. Okay, but you're a mole. The human hand typically does not have 12 fingers. Ah, but take a look at your hands. With your palms facing you. Look at your four fingers and ignore your thumbs. See the lines made by your joints? Each of Your fingers is divided up into three parts by these lines. Now count up all the parts again, ignoring your thumbs. What do you get? 12.

Cleo (6:11)

Whoa.

Host (6:12)

Put both hands together and you have 24. The ancient Egyptians used this counting method for all kinds of things. So dividing up a full day into two sets of 12 parts seemed only natural to them. Those 24 parts would eventually be called hours, which comes from an ancient Greek word meaning season or part of the day. More than 2,000 years ago, the ancient Greeks also proposed the next breakthrough in timekeeping. Let's go check it out.

Claudius (6:44)

Claudius, you're late. Were you up all night at a toga party?

Cleo (6:48)

No, I forgot to adjust my sundial for wintertime.

Claudius (6:53)

Ah. It does annoy me that winter daytime hours are shorter because winter has less sunlight. Why can't ours be the same length all the time?

Cleo (7:02)

Hmm, good question. Maybe we can figure something out. For example, the same way you Hipparchus divided the globe into equal parts using lines called longitude and latitude. What if we divided the hours of the day into equal parts?

Host (7:21)

Hmm.

Claudius (7:21)

Keep talking.

Cleo (7:23)

We need to come up with a good number that can be easily divided by lots of other numbers. Greek astronomers who have charted the night sky like the number 60 and 60 can be easily divided by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 10. What if we cut up each hour into 60 smaller parts and then call them, um. What's a good word meaning small?

Claudius (7:52)

Minute.

Cleo (7:54)

Yes, yes, but let's pronounce it minute instead. Then we can divide these smaller parts into 60 even smaller parts and call them second minutes.

Claudius (8:06)

Not bad, not bad. But how about instead of first minutes and second minutes, we'll just go with minutes and seconds? Much simpler that way.

Cleo (8:16)

Brilliant as always, sir.

Claudius (8:19)

Yes, thank you. Let's celebrate with a donut.

Cleo (8:23)

Donuts? I don't think they've been invented yet.

Claudius (8:28)

Someone's really got to get on that.

Host (8:29)

Even though the Greeks proposal to standardize hours and divide them into 60 minutes and seconds revolutionized timekeeping, most people still used the varying hours for many more centuries. Then one invention changed all of that. The one whose noise is most associated with the clock. Can you guess what it is? The answer to that right after this 60 second break. Hey, parents Trusty here with something really smart for your smarty pants. I've got nieces, nephews and close family friends. Some homeschooled, some traditional school. And lately there's one tool they all seem to be using. Ixl. One of my nephews was really struggling with reading comprehension. His parents tried Ixl, and within a couple of weeks. He was not only keeping up, he was excited to read. Then my niece, who's super into math, started exploring topics way beyond her grade level. That's the beauty of ixl. It's flexible. Kids can move at their own pace in any subject, across any grade. A friend's daughter loves the instant feedback and little rewards. It's fun, not stressful. And the parents, they love how easy it is to find the exact topic they're covering that week. IXL is organized, saves them time, and actually helps the kids feel more confident. If you're homeschooling or just want to supplement what your child is learning in traditional school, IXL is a game changer. Get 20% off@ixl.com smarted with the code smarted that's ixl.com smarted code smarted learning that's flexible, fun, and perfect for your smarty pants. That's IXL. This episode is brought to you by Squarespace so I'll be honest. I put off building our new website for way too long. I think part of me was waiting for the perfect moment or thought I needed to hire someone or take a design course or something. Total nonsense. Because then I tried Squarespace and yeah, I was hooked in an hour. Squarespace. Is this all in one platform that makes it ridiculously easy to bring an idea to life online, whether you're starting a business, launching a project, or just want to finally claim your little corner of the Internet. I used it to build a clean, professional site in a weekend. No coding, no overwhelm, just drag drop. Done. I used their Blueprint AI tool to start, and it generated a smart, customized layout just from a few questions about what we do. So if you've been waiting to launch your site, this is your sign. Head to squarespace.com smarted for a free trial and when you're ready to launch, use Code smarted to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Now back to WhoSmarted. So you've heard how the Egyptians and Greeks used the sundial to slice up the day, creating hours, minutes and seconds. But there's an itty bitty problem with the sundial. Can you think of what it is?

Cadet (11:29)

Yep.

Host (11:29)

It needs the sun to work to tell time on cloudy rainy days or at night. Ancient civilizations invented timepieces that used candles, oils, or water. They weren't very precise, and for hundreds of years, hours still varied in length as minutes and seconds were two too hard to measure. The first mechanical clocks, which introduced that famous tick tock sound were developed in the 1300s. With gears, weights and springs, these clocks created a precise measurement of time, with every hour measuring the same length. Over the next few centuries, mechanical clocks would start displaying minutes and seconds. Today, your alarm clock, microwave, cable box and smartphone tracks time electronically, sometimes with help from the Internet. These clocks show a digital number with the hour and minute and sometimes two letters, AM or pm. So what do those letters mean?

Co-Host (12:30)

Awesome. Minutes?

Host (12:31)

Power?

Cleo (12:32)

Moons?

Host (12:33)

Nope. AM and PM have to do with midday, the point in time when the sun is directly overhead and when there's no shadow on the sundial. The middle of 24 is 12, so that's why midday is at 12 o' clock or noon. AM and PM are abbreviations of words in Latin, the language of the ancient Romans from a region that is now called Italy. AM stands for the Latin words ante meridian, which means before midday, which is why the morning hours use am. PM stands for post meridian, which means after midday, which is why afternoon and evening hours are labeled pm. While many English speaking countries use AM and pm, much of the rest of the world relies on the 24 hour clock. So in those places, 1pm would actually be hour 13 and times like 3:30pm and 9:45pm are 15:30 and 21:45. The 24 hour clock is also called military time because it was adopted by military forces to avoid any confusion between between a.m. and p.m. times during battles, attack planning or even boot camp.

Co-Host (13:48)

Cadets, I want you all to drop and give me 50 push ups.

Cadet (13:51)

But sir, you said push up time is at seven.

Co-Host (13:54)

My watch says seven now.

Cadet (13:56)

But sir, your watch is a 12 hour clock and we go by military time. That means afternoon. You have to add 12 to the hours on your watch and say hundred when you mean zero minutes. So if it's 7pm it 1900 hours by military time, sir.

Co-Host (14:11)

1900 hours? What are we supposed to do at 1900 hours?

Host (14:15)

I have the schedule, sir. Well, it says here.

Co-Host (14:19)

Speak Cadet, what time is it?

Host (14:21)

It's crazy dancing time. Oh well, looks like it's time for all you listeners to join in on the dancing. I join in too, but I need to read the credits. An out of this World shout out to Zohara in the Blue Mountains, nsw Australia. I hear you listen to who smarted every day and still want more. Now that's what I call dedication. We love having you smart with us, smarty pants. This episode time was written by Dave Beaudry and voiced by Katie Lou Chastain Sheffield Chastain, Brandon Bayless, Adam Tex Davis, Charlotte Cohn Jason Williams and Jerry Colbert. Technical direction and sound design by Josh Hahn. WhoSmarted is recorded and mixed at the Relic Room studios, and our associate producer is Max Kamasky. The theme song is by Brian Suarez. Lyrics are written and performed by Adam Tex Davis. Who Smarted was created and produced by Adam Tex Davis and Jerry Colbert. This is an Atomic Entertainment production.

Co-Host (15:25)

Who Smarted.