12 Times Bill Nye Threw It Down For Science

During this TED Talk, Bill Nye explains how his father was taken as a POW during World War II and could tell the time by sticking a shovel into the sand and looking at its shadow during his four years in captivity. Eventually, Mr. Nye Sr. escaped, taking his sundial fascination with him. Bill's dad then invented the "sand dial," earning him lifetime membership in the North American Sundial Society.