My parents both have Alzheimer's, and need help remembering what the day of the week is and what the actual date (including year) is. They get confused even as to what season it is.
So I'm looking for an atomic wall clock (one of those ones that sets itself, cuz they can't reset a clock anymore) that has the day of the week, the date, the year, and the time on it. I can't find one anywhere. I'll buy over the internet if I can find one.
Any ideas?
2010-01-18T08:12:19Z
I've looked at the big department stores; they don't have clocks with the year on them.
All clocks depend on some physical property that has some kind of rhythm or regular action. A pendulum is an example. In a mechanical watch a spring and wheel oscillate one way then the other. The rest of the clock simply counts the number of times the regulator acts and displays the outcome. For a long time the rotation of the earth was considered the standard for keeping time. As technology progressed the vibration of quartz crystals became a superior regulator for a couple of good reasons the vibrations produced an electrical signal and the material is very stable so the regulation is quite accurate. Technology has progressed even further and it was discovered that certain materials vibrate (for want of a better term) at the atomic level with even better regularity. Clocks that use this atomic vibration are called atomic clocks. These clocks are very accurate. The Federal government operates some of the most accurate of these clocks and broadcasts the time over the airwaves. The clocks you can buy at the drugstore are really quartz regulated clocks that are periodically checked against the broadcast signal and reset as needed. Mine checks once every day.
Welllll my family has one of those! It's about a foot long, and half a foot wide so the numbers/letters are pretty big. I asked my mom, and she said that she bought it at a store called Brookestone (I'm not sure if you know what that is... although around here it's usually in the mall) and it's probably not too expensive (but don't hold me to that... xb) It has the time in big number on top, then the date on the bottom (with the day of the week) and the one we have comes with a little thermometer for outside so you can tell the temperature out there and inside as well.
Hope you can find it!
p.s. we bought this one awhile ago (about 5? years ago i think), so i'm not sure if it's still around... or if they updated it with a new one or what...
I have one here with the time with usual hands, and date in a window on an LCD. Mind you I got it cheap, because its DTS algorithm is set for the old parameters, so is an hour off two weeks a year. It is otherwise pretty accurate.
You can also get all sorts of large format digital LCD wall/desk clocks, some with atomic set.