Multiple Dials
Sundials are sometimes combined into multiple dials. If two or more dials that operate on different principles — say, such as an analemmatic dial and a horizontal or vertical dial — are combined, the resulting multiple dial becomes self-aligning. In other words, the direction of true North need not be determined; the dials are oriented correctly when they read the same time. This is a significant advantage in portable dials. However, the most common forms combine dials based on the same principle, and thus are not self-aligning.
Read more about this topic: Sundial
Famous quotes containing the words multiple and/or dials:
“There is a continual exchange of ideas between all minds of a generation. Journalists, popular novelists, illustrators, and cartoonists adapt the truths discovered by the powerful intellects for the multitude. It is like a spiritual flood, like a gush that pours into multiple cascades until it forms the great moving sheet of water that stands for the mentality of a period.”
—Auguste Rodin (18491917)
“Philosophy is like trying to open a safe with a combination lock: each little adjustment of the dials seems to achieve nothing, only when everything is in place does the door open.”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (18891951)