Metric-ing time itself. What would you do if it was up to you? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Ed.Kloonk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 22, 2012, 01:15:22 am
content: You've got 86400 seconds in a day.24 hours in a day.60 minutes in an hour.60 second in a minute.28-31 days in a month!~365 days a year.If you were charged with the responsibility and had to 'put the broom through' time measurement...What would you do?

author: andersm
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 22, 2012, 01:23:39 am
content: Bring backSwatch Internet Time!

author: PeterG
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 22, 2012, 01:32:44 am
content: Reminds me of a kit that was around many years ago. They called it a "Metric Clock" i think it was set up for 10hrs a day and 100 mins/hr with 100 seconds/min.It may have been a Dick Smith kit?Regards

author: Centmo
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: September 22, 2012, 02:16:58 am
content: Short of changing the spin or orbit of the Earth, we're pretty much stuck with ~365.25 days per year.There is no real need for months, they just seem easier to have because we're used to them.The days can be split up any way we want. I like the suggestion above for 10 hours per day, 100 minutes per hour, 100 seconds per minute.(We're going to have to figure out how many oscillations of the cesium atom that is.)An example date would look like 265.84263, which is the 265th day of the year (Sept 21st), 8th hour, 42nd minute, 63rd second. We would still have to refer to the year seperately.Things will start to get confusing once we start inhabiting other planets or moons with different day and year durations.

author: IanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 22, 2012, 02:19:08 am
content: Maybe not this?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Republican_CalendarIt would never catch on...

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 22, 2012, 02:54:05 am
content: no! for metric there's no such thing as many as day, minute, second etc. there will be only one unit, you choose either day, minute or second. lets say the agreed unit is day, so we can say 1 centiday (1 hour) or 1 milliday (1 second) etc. but its already there isnt it? the agreed unit is second! its just 1 day doesnt work exactly a nice tens in unit second.

author: bullet308
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 22, 2012, 03:05:24 am
content: Metric does not necessarily equal decimal.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_time]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_timeWe already have metric time, just not decimal time.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 22, 2012, 03:30:20 am
content: Quote from: PeterG on September 22, 2012, 01:32:44 amYep, I remember that one!Might have even been an April issue project,but yeah I think DSE sold it as a kit!For starters I think the calendar should be re-referenced to Nov 5th, 1955. It is after all the temporal junction point for the entire space-time continuum. Much more relevant than the death of some delusional dude.http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/11/1105back-to-the-future/Dave.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 22, 2012, 03:36:39 am
content: If someone has the issue date of that metric clock project, I can dig it out of the archives!Dave.

author: AndyC_772
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 22, 2012, 07:18:52 am
content: I'd only make one change: no time zones. When it's 12:00 in one part of the world, it's 12:00 everywhere, there is no ambiguity. If that means the sun rises at a time which is now called "3 am" then that's fine, it's just a number on the clock.Hands up everyone for whom this forum's time is actually correct. Right here and now, my local time is 8:16am and Dave's last post is showing as being at 3:36am. Does that mean I'm replying 5 hrs after the last post? No way to know without first knowing whether the forum software is aware of my time zone and is showing me local times or not.: the forum says I posted at 7:18, which isn't the correct time for either me or Dave!

author: G7PSK
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 22, 2012, 07:42:30 am
content: I once worked for a company that did all its time sheets in tenth's of an hour for some reason (something to do with their computers) So whatever you did it took six minuets or multiples thereof.Months it would not really be possible to decimalize as a Month is based on one moon cycle and again a day is divided naturally into two and as the light half of the day can then easily be divided into two (Morning and Afternoon and the halfway point is clearly seen by anyone "noon").

author: johnwa
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 22, 2012, 11:09:08 am
content: We would need to keep the second as is, it is an SI base unit after all.I would suggest getting rid of the solar day - most real engineers don't go outside anyway, and wouldn't care what position the sun was in. Days could be rounded up to 100 kiloseconds, giving an extra 3.78 hours every day for tinkering with important projects. We could then move to 10 day weeks, with a 3 day weekend, giving a slight but significant increase in leisure time.I would agree with AndyC_772's suggestion that this would be the ideal time to get the world running on the one time zone. We could also take the opportunity to get rid of the abomination that is Daylight Saving Time. (You would think that assuming each day has 24 hours would be reasonable. It is, mostly, until you find that the calendar program you wrote is inexplicably showing two March the 25ths!)

author: Ed.Kloonk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 22, 2012, 02:04:54 pm
content: Quote from: G7PSK on September 22, 2012, 07:42:30 amI've seen that. It has something to do with Excel spredsheets. If your roster said you were on at 10.75 that meant you start at quarter to eleven. This is so the computer could work out the pay easily.And that's all by the way. Never mind how confusing it was. Stupid computers and stupid Microsoft.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 22, 2012, 02:15:34 pm
content: Quote from: G7PSK on September 22, 2012, 07:42:30 amQuite common for attorney's to charge in multiples of 6 minutes.Dave.

author: AntiProtonBoy
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 22, 2012, 02:42:24 pm
content: Scientific decimal time

author: nitro2k01
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 22, 2012, 04:15:03 pm
content: I'm not sure I would change the way time of day is measured. Even if decimal time is tempting, base 12 is convenient because of how it has more divisors than 10. 2, 3, 4, 6 vs 2 and 5. I don't see any urgency to change that.However the week system is a mess. I'd reform it so that the there are 52 weeks of 7 days, starting with a Sunday on the first day of the year. Since 7*52=364, there's one spare day at the end of the year which also becomes a Sunday, 75% of the times. (Optimizing for festivities, heck yeah!)On a leap year, one more day is added at the end of the year, so the last day becomes a Monday.Months could be abolished or defined to contain 35 days (ie exactly 5 weeks). I think that's anout the best you can do with our current astronomic conditions.

author: Jimmy the Squid
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 22, 2012, 04:16:29 pm
content: Quote from: G7PSK on September 22, 2012, 07:42:30 amI don't think the month is based on lunar cycles unless you are using the Hebrew or islamic lunar calendar. Since the lunar cycle is about 29.5 days, the lunar cycle and the Gregorian months don't align.If we're going to decimalize, might have problems going to 10 months, since each would have to have 36.5 days. Maybe every other month could be 36 and 37 days.

author: GEuser
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 23, 2012, 03:19:45 am
content: In Star Trek they say "stardate time time numbers" , i wonder which "Star" they use as a reference