The Song of Time
Clocks, Clocks and More Clocks
A clock shop at midnight. A real quartz crystal keeps the time.
Eight pendulum clocks, coupled through the wall.
Huygens called it a strange sympathy. Kuramoto wrote the equation.
CRR derives the coupling. The synchronisation is real.
═══ WHAT IS GENUINE HERE ═══
The quartz crystal on your sound card vibrates at ~48,000 Hz. We count every oscillation.
8 Kuramoto oscillators are solved at sample rate — 48,000 integration steps per second.
dθᵢ/dt = ωᵢ + (K/N) Σⱼ Kᵢⱼ · sin(θⱼ − θᵢ) — no lerping, no cheating.
ONE CLOCK: the crystal times everything. Physics, narrative, visuals — all derived
from the crystal's sample count. No browser timer. One Date.now() at epoch, then silence.
CRR derives the coupling: Kᵢⱼ = Ω_mutual = 1/(p+q) for ratio p:q.
Octave (2:1) → K=1/3. Fifth (3:2) → K=1/5. These sync first. Always.
Tick = δ(now) when θ > 2π. Decay = exp(−t/Ω). Beauty = B(C/Ω) peaks before rupture.
K increases over the piece. Synchronisation EMERGES. Nobody forces it.
touch to engage the crystal