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Metric Time

metric-time.com

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Re: Metric Time

#2
You could call this lots of things, but you shouldn’t call it “metric” because its second is not a metric second. In the SI (metric) system, the second is one of the fundamental units. The world does not need a conflicting definition for the second.

As someone who’s implemented a date and time library, the real pain is in dates, leap seconds and time zone transitions. 86,400 seconds in a day is a relative piece of cake.

The AM/PM thing is a solved problem. Many countries (not the one I live in) already use a 24 hour clock, in which 11pm is 23:00. Because many countries use it, most devices that keep time can be set to 12 or 24 hour clock. That includes almost every clock I own, including the oven in the kitchen, my car, all the HVAC units, and of course phones and computers. An exception is the irrigation system – the old one (designed in the USA) supports 24 hour time, but its replacement (designed in Australia) does not. I don’t think anyone, seeing all my clocks, has ever commented on them being in 24 hour mode. Most people have seen it before.

Re: Metric Time

#3
> Working with base-10 numbers is so much easier than trying to think in base-60, base-12, and base-24.

> To get a good night sleep (8 standard hours) you'd sleep for 3.33 metric hours.

Quote 2 seems to clearly contradict quote 1. 60 is great as it divides into 2,3,4 and 5. That's a feature not a bug

Re: Metric Time

#6
I love how this mentions "decimal is as easy as money, assuming US dollars" when the US is basically the only country still using non-decimal units for most things, and money was wildly non-decimal in other places (cough UK cough).

Re: Metric Time

#7
Personally, I prefer 100 metric hours in a day. Each centiday is about 15 minutes.

Each milliday is about 90 seconds.

And a microday is slightly shorter than a second.

But, sadly, this revolution won't occur until after I'm elected God-Emperor of Mars, so it is all rather academic.

Re: Metric Time

#8

You could call this lots of things, but you shouldn’t call it “metric” because its second is not a metric second. In the SI (metric) system, the second is one of the fundamental units. The world does not need a conflicting definition for the second. As someone who’s implemented a date and time library, the real pain is in dates, leap seconds and time zone transitions. 86,400 seconds in a day is a relative piece of ca…

You are right of course but also keep in mind that, and that is just my thoughts after reading, is that the French tried to implement decimal time along with the rest of what we call the metric system in the 18th century. And it was the only system people rejected. So I think the author named everything metric to make the point that if it would be part of the system a metric second would be … long. But again I could be wrong. In any case the page would also work by naming everything decimal-something. Maybe not as catchy.

Re: Metric Time

#9
base-10 time only makes sense because we use a base-10 number system. the Babylonians didn't use a base-10 number system so the current time system was more intuitive. however, the French already tried this a couple hundred years ago. it didn't stick around.

personally, I'd prefer we drop all base-10 conventions (units, numbers, etc) and switch to base-12 and base-60 for everything (dozenal or duodecimal)

Re: Metric Time

#10

You could call this lots of things, but you shouldn’t call it “metric” because its second is not a metric second. In the SI (metric) system, the second is one of the fundamental units. The world does not need a conflicting definition for the second. As someone who’s implemented a date and time library, the real pain is in dates, leap seconds and time zone transitions. 86,400 seconds in a day is a relative piece of ca…

FTFY: English does not need a second conflicting definition for the second.
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