3 ms·
I’m a big fan of vernier scales from my machining days, and it wasn’t until I read this site that I learned why: human vision has what’s called “vernier hyperac
by fwlr 3y ago
I’m a big fan of vernier scales from my machining days, and it wasn’t until I read this site that I learned why: human vision has what’s called “vernier hyperacuity”: the ability to detect slightly misaligned line segments at up to 10x the acuity of regular vision. So that’s why they always felt so precise and easy to read!
Unfortunately I can’t make much sense of the clock presented here. It would help me understand if you had a digital clock next to the vernier clock and both were running at 60x normal speed.
- lykahb 3y agoI'll think if the default view can show how it works in a more intuitive way. Perhaps moving faster than the actual time can help. Actually, the page can already do what you ask. There is a digital clock in the form under the dial. The minutes field is a number input. If you put focus in it and press up or down, you'll both see the digital time and move forward time at a high speed.
- fwlr 3y agoFantastic, I just tried it out and it makes a lot more sense. I should have played around more with the form!
- grncdr 3y agoOne suggestion: allow the `minutes` input to wrap and increment the hour instead of setting max="59". This allows somebody to hold the up/down arrow and get a sense of how hour changes are represented.
- omoikane 3y agoFollowing this suggestion, I finally understood the two alignments needed to read this clock. I think this is a very neat idea. Then, I stood back far away from my monitor and adjusted the hour and minute fields, and found that it was very difficult to discern the hour and minute alignments, even after increasing the minute marker thickness. I am afraid this mechanism might not be quite practical for people with poor eyesights. Or maybe there is another way to show off the alignment better? Perhaps if the rings were lenticular and could magnify the aligned lines? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenticular_printing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenticular_printing
- lykahb 3y agoUpdated the example to highlight the markers for the current time. If the clock looks the same, try reloading without cache with Ctrl-Shift-R or similar.
- jeroen 3y agoI checked this out at 11:58. The 11 was highlighted while the clock displayed "it's almost 12". Highlighting the 12 would have been more helpful.