Union square what do the numbers mean

Golan and Boyd arranged the change with the blessing of Andrew Ginzel and Kristin Jones, the original artists behind Metronome — a name that actually refers collectively to multiple pieces of art overlooking Union Square, with the digit LED display formally known as The Passage.

One popular word-of-mouth theory has held that the figures are somehow tied to the national debt. Read from left to right, the first seven digits show the current time in hour format, down to the tenth of a second. The last seven digits represent the amount of time left until midnight, again to the tenth of a second, though they are meant to be read from right to left — that is, with the two rightmost numbers representing hours.

For example, if the clock shows , the time is and The clock display is called The Passage and is part of larger art installation on the building, called Metronome by Kristin Jones and Andrew Ginzel. Your email address will not be published. The number in the middle is a hundredth of a second and is just a blur to the naked eye. For example, if the clock reads , it means that 7 hours, 4 minutes, 37 seconds, and 0 tenths of a second have passed since midnight.

There are also 16 hours, 56 minutes, 23 seconds, and 0 tenths of a second until the next midnight. Designed by Kristen Jones and Andrew Ginzel, the Metronome is meant to be an artistic reflecting geological, historical, and astronomical time — whatever that means.

Jones and Ginzel apparently wanted the public to reflect upon the different forms of time and its relationship to New York City.