Keeping accurate time is an age old quest of humans. Being able to measure time accurately is not only a convenience, it can be a matter of life or death, such as in maritime navigation. The story of Longitude beautifully demonstrates the importance of knowing time for finding one's position on our planet. Read Dava Sobel's Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time. Most early clocks used pendulums to establish a rythm. But pendulums not only do not work in a wrist watch, they also change their rythms on ships moving with the waves. Therefore, the construction of clock balance wheels which perform torsion oscillations is an important step toward simpler and more accurate time keeping. Flywheels and torsion springs can teach us much about simple rotational motion. | | 
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