Pure Pedantry : Probabilistic Clock

Reality is always more complicated than you think.

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Jake Young is a MD/PhD student at Mount Sinai School of Medicine focusing in Neuroscience. He is due to graduate in 2032. He received a BS and a MS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University -- where he spent most of his time drinking heavily and building vegetable catapults instead of learning information that would now be eminently useful. When he is not failing terrifically to perform his sworn duties, he enjoys watching bad movies, ethnic food, and running.

Pure Pedantry is a blog about science -- social sciences and otherwise -- as well as academic and scientific culture. No one can live on science alone, so I also like to dwell on pop culture, periodically explore the humanities, and indulge in other types of geeky goodness.

Jake is joined periodically by two wonderful guest bloggers: Kara Contreary and Kate Seip. See the About Page.

DISCLAIMERS: 1) Jake Young is not a licensed physician (yet). He is merely a medical student. The information published on this site is not intended for use in medical decision making. Please seek advice from a licensed, medical professional before making any health decisions. 2) The opinions expressed are my own or those of my co-bloggers. They do not represent the views of SEED magazine or the educational establishments we currently attend.

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Probabilistic Clock

Category: Technology
Posted on: January 29, 2007 10:23 AM, by Jake Young

When I was a kid my Mom would always set the clock in the car forward about 15 minutes arguing that if she did that she would never be late. First of all, we were always early -- sometimes ridiculously so -- regardless of the clock. Second, I was always a bit skeptical of this strategy because you knew how far it was forward, and you could mentally calculate the real time. Furthermore, there are a lot more clocks in the average persons life than just the one in their car.

Anyway, to solve the issue of mental calculation Lifehacker has this web gadget -- a probabilistic clock. The time is randomly moved forward between 0 and 15 minutes ahead of the actually time, so you don't know exactly how far it is ahead. Unfortunately, it is only available as a web program, so I can't have it installed in my Mom's car.

Hat-tip: Crooked Timber.