I have recently found myself taking classes in a “post-baccaluareate” program, or as the University calls it the “why didn’t you take these damn classes while you were an undergrad, idiot” program. So, I am taking Physics and was studying rather dilligently for a test recently. On the night before the test I was up most of the night and decided to sleep in one hour shifts. I positioned my clock right next to my head, so that between naps I could see if I had time to sleep a little longer. It is a digital clock with large red numbers on the display. This was how I found my clock defied all the laws of Physics.
I had spent the past three days working with god-knows how many equations, constants and numbers. I had been immersed in it for three straight days, so I had numbers on the brain. I then decided to begin my napping shifts, with the clock right next to my head. After an hour, my alarm would go off and in a half conscious state I would go searching for the source of the noise. I would turn off the alarm, but couldn’t for the life of me figure out what my clock was up to. I saw the numbers on the display, but they didn’t fit into any of the Physics equations or problems that I had been studying. What I didn’t realize in my sleeplessness was that the numbers on the clock were not meant to fit into any equation; they’re just numbers. But in my half-awake state, they were supposed to work with my Physics equations.
Consequently, right after I would turn off my alarm and before I went back to sleep for another hour, I would get very angry. I was pissed that despite all I studied I couldn’t get these few numbers to fit into the correct Physics scenario. These numbers openly defied me, taunting me to solve them, and to top it all off they were taunting me in my own room! The arrogance of those damn number! Sure, this made no sense, but you try thinking clearly at 4:00am, half-asleep, hours away from a huge test. All I know is that when I finally did get up to go take the test, I was unexplainably angry at my clock and felt I wasn’t ready. I went over stuff and seemed to know it all, yet there lingered this strange anger toward the clock by my bed. I then put it all together. My clock defied the laws of Physics and given the chance would probably start openly defying the law of gravity while I was still in the room. I couldn’t have it. I took the clock to my Physics professor, to show him my astounding discovery. Nothing extraordinary happened, though. I got one measly grant to work at the Fermi Lab in Chicago, and I started a clock cult. Nothing too big.