The problem is base 10 is a terrible base for any unit that needs to be divided. It’s an arbitrary base with no positives based on our fingers. No reasonable species would have picked base 12 when base 12 is so much better and so close. 10 can’t be evenly divided into 3 or 4 parts. 60 minutes in 3 parts is 20 minutes. 100 minutes in 3 parts is 33.3333 minutes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexagesimal
True. And having 7 days per week is majorly impractical, also for reasons of divisibility. With 7 being prime, it's impossible to do things every other day or every three days without being left with a remainder.
The problem is base 10 is a terrible base for any unit that needs to be divided. It’s an arbitrary base with no positives based on our fingers. No reasonable species would have picked base 12 when base 12 is so much better and so close. 10 can’t be evenly divided into 3 or 4 parts. 60 minutes in 3 parts is 20 minutes. 100 minutes in 3 parts is 33.3333 minutes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexagesimal
True. And having 7 days per week is majorly impractical, also for reasons of divisibility. With 7 being prime, it's impossible to do things every other day or every three days without being left with a remainder.
This was a fascinating read for a totally unexpected reason. I’ve spent most of my life in countries where the metric system is used for distance, weight, temperature etc. This year I’ve had to travel a lot to the US for work and found the constant mental conversions a PITA. I kept wondering why people keep holding out against such an obviously easier system. Then I read this article about 8 hours of sleep would be 3…
At least the 3.33 makes intuitive sense to me: a third of a 10 hour day.
Am I correct in assuming 9:50 and 2:75 should be the other way around?
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.
There is no conflicting definition. Minutes, seconds, thirds, and fourths etc. are sexagesimal subdivisions, as tenths, hundreds, thousandths, ten thiusandths etc. are for decimal.
The problem is base 10 is a terrible base for any unit that needs to be divided. It’s an arbitrary base with no positives based on our fingers. No reasonable species would have picked base 12 when base 12 is so much better and so close. 10 can’t be evenly divided into 3 or 4 parts. 60 minutes in 3 parts is 20 minutes. 100 minutes in 3 parts is 33.3333 minutes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexagesimal
I need to divide my 12 into 9 parts. What do I do now?
What I do hate is the need to make a day ten hours. I'd actually prefer we keep a day 24 hours, it makes the transition a lot easier, and all the other mental math still simplifies.
The problem is base 10 is a terrible base for any unit that needs to be divided. It’s an arbitrary base with no positives based on our fingers. No reasonable species would have picked base 12 when base 12 is so much better and so close. 10 can’t be evenly divided into 3 or 4 parts. 60 minutes in 3 parts is 20 minutes. 100 minutes in 3 parts is 33.3333 minutes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexagesimal
True. And having 7 days per week is majorly impractical, also for reasons of divisibility. With 7 being prime, it's impossible to do things every other day or every three days without being left with a remainder.
But at least 7 days per week resonates approximately with the lunar orbit.
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…
I don’t know the exact history, but the rest of the metric system is designed with a base unit and decimal derivatives. Assuming we want to keep the day length consistent (I can’t imagine a system being practically useful otherwise), we’d have decidays, centidays, etc. and not have hours, minutes, and seconds in the system at all. A system with days, decidays (2.4 hours), millidays (1.44 minutes), and microdays (0.0864 seconds) doesn’t seem bad to me at all, I’m sure people would come up with a good name for 10 microdays for daily use (0.864 seconds).