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Someday aliens will land and all will be fine until we explain our calendar

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Re: Someday aliens will land and all will be fine until we explain our calendar

#131

Post by dan-robertson »

octobus2021 wrote: post #63

This is absolutely hilarious, and despite being long form, fits Twitter format very well, with each chunk funnier than the last :) A few notes: - Per my knowledge US is the only country which stubbornly (and illogically) considers Sunday to be the first day of the week; - US (and maybe one or two English-speaking countries) are the only ones using 12h time, the rest of the world uses 24hrs, however 12h _sometimes_ is…

There was a more significant effort to decimalise time (and the calendar to some extent) after the French Revolution, along with introducing the metric system everywhere. People hated it and they eventually switched back. A bit of related trivia is that France only accepted the Greenwich Meridian on maps/charts on the condition that the international meridian conference (of 1884) also concluded that the convened nations also resolved that decimal time was a good idea and they should work towards it.

Re: Someday aliens will land and all will be fine until we explain our calendar

#132

Post by timbit42 »

bluecalm wrote: post #45

I always thought it would make sense to have 52 weeks (364 days) and then a special New Years day and then repeat 52 weeks. This way every year is the same. It's always the same day of the week on April's 13th. No moving holidays. Easier to plan. No adjusting schedules. No problem with leap seconds/days (just as them to the special day whenever). It just seems like a simple and superior solution. What were those guys…

How about three 90 day quarters comprised of three 30 day months and one day in between each quarter for each solstice and equinox day? You can add a day or a week periodically to keep it synced.

Re: Someday aliens will land and all will be fine until we explain our calendar

#133

Post by narag »

octobus2021 wrote: post #63

This is absolutely hilarious, and despite being long form, fits Twitter format very well, with each chunk funnier than the last :) A few notes: - Per my knowledge US is the only country which stubbornly (and illogically) considers Sunday to be the first day of the week; - US (and maybe one or two English-speaking countries) are the only ones using 12h time, the rest of the world uses 24hrs, however 12h _sometimes_ is…

Honestly I didn't find it funny, maybe because it ignores the reasons of the inconsistencies, that by the way are perfectly understandable looking at space.

Months are related to Moon's orbit, weeks to its phases. Months have other gods's names: Janus, Phoebe, Mars, Aphrodite, Maya, Juno... Julius and Augustus were emperors and from that point are just numerals, starting at March. It was associated with Mars because Romans used to go to war in the Spring.

Asimov had an excellent chapter on calendar in his divulgative book The Universe, explaining why it's not so easy to design a regular "logical" calendar.

Re: Someday aliens will land and all will be fine until we explain our calendar

#135

Post by PebblesRox »

throwaway290 wrote: post #51
weissbier wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as I know, that's actually used, when something starts in the "old" day and continues into the "new" day.

See also May 35th.

TIL: https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/24/opinion/global/24iht-june...

Re: Someday aliens will land and all will be fine until we explain our calendar

#136

Post by eastbound »

ozim wrote: post #56

Consistency is for small minds. I expect aliens to have much broader issues with time keeping. Rotations of different galaxies? Weird alien rulers imposing their names like "X Æ A-12" for 3rd rotation even if 12 is in the name. Having video calls scheduling is hard between Earth time zones - good luck scheduling video call between two galaxies.

The lag would be enormous between galaxies, unless we invent quantum entanglement, in which case the lag is also irrelevant because you can teleport yourself.

Re: Someday aliens will land and all will be fine until we explain our calendar

#137

Post by function_seven »

Ekaros wrote: post #37
llanowarelves wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The metric "interface" has nice "round" numbers, but the implementation idk: "In the SI, the standard metre is defined as exactly 1/299,792,458 of the distance that light travels in a second." "The kilogram was originally defined as the mass of one cubic decimetre of water at 4 °C, standardized as the mass of a man-made artefact of platinum-iridium held in a laboratory in France, which was used until a new definition…

So what are the "imperial" Volts and Amperes?

As an unashamed imperial units enthusiast, now I’m sad we don’t have different ones for current and potential.

But at least we still have horsepower! My PSU is a 3/4-horse unit. My toaster oven is a full horsepower.

I like it.

Re: Someday aliens will land and all will be fine until we explain our calendar

#138

Post by happyopossum »

octobus2021 wrote: post #63

This is absolutely hilarious, and despite being long form, fits Twitter format very well, with each chunk funnier than the last :) A few notes: - Per my knowledge US is the only country which stubbornly (and illogically) considers Sunday to be the first day of the week; - US (and maybe one or two English-speaking countries) are the only ones using 12h time, the rest of the world uses 24hrs, however 12h _sometimes_ is…

Both of your first points are factually incorrect - I’d have to imagine some bubble-bias involved, but many countries aside from the US use the 12 hour clock and start their calendars on Sunday.

Re: Someday aliens will land and all will be fine until we explain our calendar

#139

Post by JoeAltmaier »

Ekaros wrote: post #17

Don't even go to those idiots over there who uses these weird units for measuring temperature, distance, weight and ugh volume... When we actually have this well designed system where everything fits beautifully together...

Two pints in a quart! Two quarts in a 'pottle'! Two pottles in a gallon!

Except nobody remembers what a 'pottle' is.

Re: Someday aliens will land and all will be fine until we explain our calendar

#140

Post by bonzini »

myth2018 wrote: post #76

In Portuguese, Monday-Friday are numbered (2a-feira - 6a-feira). I wonder if are there other languages also presenting this feature. I believe there are.

Czech but only for Thursday and Friday. And they're fourth and fifth, so it's off by one.
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