Greenwich...and the Equation of Time

Why do I bother to listen to what American's have to say about London, particularly why they've never been? It was for this reason I nearly avoided an entire section of the southeast portion of this city; my hall's RA at Ohio State was meant to attend the University of Greenwich the same term I was to go to Cambridge, so we were comparing travel plans and school locations and other essential elements of a UK study abroad experience, prior to our departures from OSU. It was during this conversation that she mentioned how she anticipated a perfectly horrid on-campus experience for herself owing to the fact that Greenwich is a dirty, industrial, and unattractive part of London. I believe she'd been there once before, if I remember correctly. Nonetheless and despite the fact I was already a lover of all things English, I could hardly refute her claim as I'd never been abroad, myself, nor did I know any distinct characteristics of pieces of London. The specificity of my UK knowledge was entirely lacking, I’m ashamed to admit. At the time, then, I felt a twinge of pity for her knowing I was going to what I considered to be the most beautiful campus in the world.

Alas, I never spoke to her of our foreign exchange adventures post-study to determine the accuracy of her impressions of the school or of SE London. In fact, I wasn't reminded of our concurrent studies abroad until 2 ½ years later, meaning this past January of 2012 when I was invited to Greenwich, myself. Another American I'd met in London had lived in Greenwich while attending Goldsmith's University and, unlike my RA, was a huge fan of the area. Though I anticipated a grungy experience I agreed to go along anyway, never one to turn down an offer to see new parts of London. After all, I’m a fan of grunge and dark, underground scenes. So why not give Greenwich a shot?

Greenwich Park, site for the upcoming Equestrian Games in the 2012 summer Olympics!

Despite the fact it's south of the Thames, just as Roehampton is, you actually have to take a very round about way to get to Greenwich from here, switching trains and going north of the river, just to go south once again. Destination #1: The Meantime Bar at the Old Brewery on the Old Royal Naval College Campus. As we approached, I was struck first by the absolutely gorgeous setting because, as it turns out, Greenwich has been favored by royalty since the 1420s and several increasingly grand houses were built next to the Thames. Greenwich Palace, built by Henry VII on the site of today’s Old Royal Naval College (ORNC), was transformed by Henry VIII into a sophisticated royal residence, modeling both its elaborate decoration and culture on the courts of France and Spain, with the emphasis on pleasure and ostentation. Henry VIII added a tiltyard for jousting together with an armory, kennels, stables, tennis courts and a cock pit. However, the Tudor buildings were demolished in the 1660s to make way for Charles II’s new palace, which was intended to rival Versailles. Its location on the Thames allowed Greenwich to retain its links with the sea, sailors and ships. The transition from sail to steam meant that Naval officers required more sophisticated technical education than they could get as trainees on board ship. 

Naval College at Night

Our position, at that moment, was adjacent to Trinity Laban, the UK's first ever Conservatoire of Music and Dance, ranked number one in both its specialisms, and located within the beautiful Wren designed King Charles Court at the Old Royal Naval College. And that night it appeared that a protest was in session. The night was alight with blue spotlights and hundreds of people spilled into the alleys between buildings. Everyone was shouting and the noise seemed entirely out of place in such a sophisticated setting, to be honest. Being the inquisitor I am, I needed to investigate. Against the will of my exploring buddy, we neared the back of the crowd where a film crew was assembling their gear. Another shout rose up in the night, but no one moved from their positions. I asked what was going on: We're filming a commercial for the botanical gardens.

Really?

Yes.

Oh. Nevermind then.

Moving on. We turned and headed back to the pub. The Meantime Bar at the Old Brewery is “a state of the art research facility and Meantime's experimental home. Here the brewers are able to trial, tinker and ultimately create extraordinary quality, limited edition beers, many in a style unavailable anywhere else in the world, including some wild beers (brewed using non conventional yeasts). Delving into the history books, long forgotten recipes, such as old Tudor style ales, will be given a new lease of life. Ancient recipes that used ingredients such as 'bog myrtle' or 'wormwood' are brewed alongside avant garde beers such as Mojito Pilsners and Juniper Pale Ales which have been specifically crafted to match the flavors and aromas of modern contemporary cuisine. The eight majestic 1000 liter copper clad vats (also called tuns) dominate the main hall of The Old Brewery. From their unique vantage point the Main Hall diners can witness the activity around the copper tuns, the focal point of this extraordinary working brewery. The new brewhouse's amazing high-tech design means The Old Brewery is an intriguing balance of the new and the old. Each copper tun will hold 1,500 expertly brewed pints.”

Royal Observatory

From there we walked along the elevated path following the Thames. It was then I was formally introduced to Greenwich Mean Time (no longer referring to the pub now, though the similarity in words can't be ignored). As we all know, Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is a time system originally referring to mean solar time and is what later became adopted as a global time standard. What I didn't know, though maybe you did, is that the line designating GMT is at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. In the United Kingdom, GMT is the official time only during winter; during summer British Summer Time is used. For you sciencey people out there: Noon Greenwich Mean Time is rarely the exact moment when the noon sun crosses the Greenwich meridian (and reaches its highest point in the sky at Greenwich) because of Earth's uneven speed in its elliptic orbit and its axial tilt. This event may be up to 16 minutes away from noon GMT (a discrepancy calculated by the equation of time [see below]). The fictitious mean sun is the annual average of this nonuniform motion of the true Sun, necessitating the inclusion of mean in Greenwich Mean Time.

The Equation of Time:

Using the approximation for α(M), Δt can be written as a simple explicit expression, which is designated Δt_a because it is only an approximation:

And there IS literally a line. A bright green line in the sky at night. 

See? Everywhere to the West of this is behind in time, and everywhere to the East is ahead in time.

You'll also notice in this photo, about 1cm to the right, is the O2 Arena. Hadn't been there either. So that was, spontaneously, our next stop. As the name so cleverly suggests, the O2 Arena is (yes, you guessed it) an arena....for events. You know, music...and stuff. Plus a cinema, restaurants, bars, and clubs, all under one gigantic roof. What more could you want for full time entertainment? And yes, it's pretty darn huge; a kilometer in circumference and 50 meters high at its central point. If you turned The O2 upside down, it would take Niagara Falls 15 minutes to fill it, they say on their website.

Metallica at the O2