(urth) Sundial with "multitudinous faces"?

[Jeff Wilson]

On 5/12/2011 11:34 AM, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:
> On Thu, May 12, 2011 at 9:30 AM, Gwern Branwen<gwern0 at gmail.com>  wrote:
>
>> It occurred to me that the sundials probably date back to Urth's
>> interstellar empire if not earlier. Maybe they tell times on different
>> *worlds*.
>
> I don't see how you could do that - a sundial is limited to a 24-hour
> cycle (during about half of which it isn't showing anything).

The animal statues in the atrium suggest a degree of ornamentation that 
might include curved reflectors that transform the various motions of 
the earth with regard to the sun into a series of curves with arbitrary 
periods through a sufficiently advanced application of analytical 
geometry. IIRC The Astronauts' Memorial at the Kennedy Space Center uses 
a similar principle to illuminate the names of the the Apollo I and 
Challenger crews and a few others on the appropriate anniversary dates, 
and is located close by the Rocket Garden, hint hint.

http://als.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:KSC_Rocket_Garden.jpg

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
Computational Intelligence Laboratory - Texas A&M Texarkana
< http://www.tamut.edu/CIL >