Wednesday

Candle Clock

I do so adore the book
Sonlight recommends for 2nd grade History...

While we were learning about King Alfred of England in 900AD,
we discovered how he invented the "Candle Clock."

So, NATURALLY, we had to make one ourselves!

First, the girls and I measured an unburned candle
we had...
(We had to use the yard stick
since our rulers were in use for another project,
which I HOPE to post about tomorrow...)
Our candle turned out to be about 9 inches long...
Next, I lit the candle...
...and we set the timer for one hour.
We rather enjoyed the ambiance the candle offered
to our lessons during that hour of waiting...
We then blew out the candle,
let it cool,
and measured how far it burned in one hour's time.

(Side note: Jungle Girl made the prediction that the candle would
burn off about 1 to 1.5 inches of wax in an hour, and she was correct!)
We then marked the candle at every 1.5 inches with a
permanent marker...
...and our "Candle Clock" was complete!

Now we can keep time during our next black out...

5 comments:

  1. And monks used to use candles as alarm clocks. They'd put them between their toes and hold them there, and would wake up when the fire got to their toes. Or so went the report I did as a kid....
    LOVE IT!

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  2. Great idea! I would have never thought to do this!

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  3. SHUT UP Ticia- the way I sleep, I would most definitely start a fire if I tried that...

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  4. Your posts are always so funny! I passed an award onto you: http://funhandprintart.blogspot.com/2010/02/kreativ-blog-award-and-beautiful.html

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  5. Great book recommendation - I wonder if my library has it...or if I have any more room on my on hold list...or if I could have a candle burn for an hour without one of the children using it to burn down the house?

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