Metric Time

Post by FabHK » Thu, Oct 12, 2023, 1:43 PM UTC

jader201 wrote: post #163

toxik wrote: post #74

I love how the example is super confusing. You sleep 3.33… metric hours. You fall asleep 9:50 metric time. You'd think we can just interchange the . and : so you should wake up 12:83…, or 2:83… the next day. But no, it's apparently 2:75 metric time. Why? Also nice how they IMMEDIATELY ran into a continuing fraction 1/3, which is exactly the point of the 60-minute hour, 24-hour day, or 360-degree circle: lots of facto…

It’s too bad it doesn’t take exactly 360 days for the earth to orbit the Sun. We should do something about that.

Post by reliablereason » Thu, Oct 12, 2023, 1:47 PM UTC

tomtomtom777 wrote: post #118

L3viathan wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also nice how they IMMEDIATELY ran into a continuing fraction 1/3, which is exactly the point of the 60-minute hour, 24-hour day, or 360-degree circle: lots of factors. While I agree in principle, this example is not evidence of it. It's not like we measured the amount of sleep needed and it's precisely 8 hours. A more reasonable thing to say would be: You need to sleep for 3.5 metric hours.

Exactly. The exact amount of sleep needed on average is almost certainly an irrational number. (Because almost every number is irrational)

Post by lesuorac » Thu, Oct 12, 2023, 1:50 PM UTC

xattt wrote: post #188

kybernetikos wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No because its a humane rather than scientific system. Day lengths in a scientific time vary, but in this system the hours are defined to be 10ths of a solar day so they vary as the day varies. Scientific measurement should be done with a different system. I'd suggest something based on the speed of light.

> … but in this system the hours are defined to be 10ths of a solar day so they vary as the day varies. This is reasonable and not unsafe at all, particularly when it comes to timing things like exposure time with patients receiving radiation therapy. However, we will be left wondering why treatment in the summer is more effective that treatment in the winter. Must be the nice weather.

Post by MrGilbert » Thu, Oct 12, 2023, 1:52 PM UTC

Humphrey wrote: post #169

jonwinstanley wrote: post #159

This is cool. However, for me, it's the months that are the weirdest issue. Why do we all get paid the same each month, pay the same rent/mortgage but some months have 4 weekends, some have 5. We should have 13 months, all 28 days long, exactly 4 weeks. Whenever there's a leap year we get an extra day for free. :-)

> Why do we all get paid the same each month, pay the same rent/mortgage but some months have 4 weekends, some have 5. Is paying monthly an American thing? In Australia most things seem to revolve around n weeks. - I get paid on Thu every second week (2 weeks) - My pre-paid phone auto-recharged is every 28 days (4 weeks). - House rentals are listed as weekly rates, paid at whatever n weeks you negotiate. - Mortgages…

Post by lesuorac » Thu, Oct 12, 2023, 1:56 PM UTC

blululu wrote: post #161

jhbadger wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a way, China kind of has something like the Swatch gimmick for real. There's just one time zone in the whole country (which is roughly the size of the Continental US). This has benefits (easy to coordinate video conferences in different cities) and drawbacks (the official time is far off from what the sun would indicate in much of China).

It only works because the overwhelming majority of the population and all of the political and economic power lies on the east coast of China in a single time zone. I doubt that the people in Urumqi are happy to have the sun rise at 10 am, and I doubt that anyone cares about their opinions.