Fibonacci Clock - An unusual time indicator

The Fibonacci Clock

A few months ago I came across a project on Kickstarter by Philippe Chrétien (geekoclock.com) from the year 2015. There (www.kickstarter.com/projects/basbrun/fibonacci-clock-an-open-source-clock-for-nerds-wit) a watch was offered for sale which shows the time using the Fibonacci sequence.

For those who don't remember what the Fibonacci sequence is, here's a little digression:
In the Fibonacci sequence, the next number is always the sum of the previous two (Fibonacci) numbers. So if you start at 1 it is: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, ...

And it is precisely with the help of these five numbers that the Fibonacci clock can display the current time.
The dial consists of LED areas that light up in different colors and thus represent the respective numerical values from which the current time can be read.

As always, the whole thing can be explained well with a few examples.


Fibonacci clock display

The “display” of the Fibonacci clock is divided into five areas, each area of which can light up in a different color.

In order to read the time on the Fibonacci clock, a few basics must first be explained. This picture shows the layout of the Fibonacci clock display. This is divided into five areas. Each of these areas has the specified value. The large red area marked with a “5” has a value of five, the next smaller green area has a value of three, the next smaller blue area has a value of two and the remaining two areas each have a value of one.


Read hours

If you've been paying attention, you'll have noticed that it can be used to represent the numbers 1 to 12, which - surprise - is perfect for representing the number of hours in a clock.
If, for example, only the area with the significance five is lit, it is five o'clock. If, in addition to the area with the significance five, the area with the significance two is also lit, these must be added together. This would then correspond to the time seven (2+5) o'clock.

In this way, all times from 0 (no area is lit) to 12 (all areas are lit) can be displayed.


Read minutes

That's all well and good, now we know how to read and "calculate" the hours, but how do you recognize the number of minutes in the displayed time?
That's where the different colors come into play. As you've probably already noticed, the surfaces glow in either blue, red or green.
And now the minutes can also be displayed. The clock shows whether the current value is valid only for the number of hours, only for the number of minutes or for both.

If an area is red, its value may only be taken into account for the number of hours.
If an area is green, its value may only be taken into account for the number of minutes.
If, on the other hand, a surface is blue, its significance must be taken into account for both the number of hours and the number of minutes.

But we are not finished yet, the number of minutes read off must now also be multiplied by five.
And that's where we already come to the first small drawback of the watch.
Apart from the fact that - especially at the beginning - it takes a little longer to read off the time, the number of minutes can only be displayed in five-minute steps. This means that 08:43 is not displayed as 08:43 but as 08:40. The display therefore always rounds off to the previous value divisible by five.


Examples

So that sounds pretty complicated at first. But once you understand it, you quickly realize that it's not.
For a better understanding, let's try to read the displayed time of the example.

In the displayed screen, the areas light up as follows:
Area with valence 5: red=valence applies only to the number of hours
Area with valence 3: green=valence applies only to the number of minutes
Area with valence 2: blue=valence applies to the number of hours and the number of minutes
Area with valence 1: green=valence applies only to the number of minutes

Now you just have to summarize the valences:
Hours: 5+2=7
Minutes: 3+2+1=6 and this multiplied by five gives: 30

So the displayed time is 07:30.

I think this is a great project for anyone interested in numbers and puzzles and I think it's also a great gift idea for engineers, mathematicians, teachers and scientists in general.

To practice, here are a few displays with the respective time displayed

This slideshow requires JavaScript.


NerdiysFibonacciBuild your own clock

After all the theory about this clock, it was clear to me that I also had to have one. However, I didn't want to simply replicate the hardware of the clock and instead came up with my own design that can be easily replicated.

For all those who want to build their own Fibonacci clock, I have recorded the construction and programming. You can also find a simple instruction manual under the following links 🙂

You can find the necessary parts in the store at https://www.nerdiy.de/produkt-kategorie/fibonacciuhr/ get


Further information

You can also find more information in the following articles:

Fibonacci clock assembly
Fibonacci clock programming
Fibonacci Clock User Guide


Have fun with the project

I hope everything worked as described for you. If not or you have questions or suggestions please let me know in the comments. I will then add this to the article if necessary.
Ideas for new projects are always welcome. 🙂

PS Many of these projects - especially the hardware projects - cost a lot of time and money. Of course I do this because I enjoy it, but if you think it's cool that I share the information with you, I would be happy about a small donation to the coffee fund. 🙂

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