How about more time trivia then.
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How about more time trivia then. So what is the deal with 12 hour clocks if we have 24 hours in a day? Furthermore, why 24 hours? And if they are 24 hours in a day, why are there 60 minutes and 60 seconds? This seems illogical, right? Maybe we should decimalize it, like we did with the metric system!
The 12-hour division seems to have come from ancient Egypt. While in the modern world we tend to learn and use a decimal number system (base ten), that was not always the case. Historically many cultures used a duodecimal system, also known as base twelve. It uses twelve as its foundational counting unit. Sort of like how our usual decimal system revolves around the number ten.
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The 12-hour division seems to have come from ancient Egypt. While in the modern world we tend to learn and use a decimal number system (base ten), that was not always the case. Historically many cultures used a duodecimal system, also known as base twelve. It uses twelve as its foundational counting unit. Sort of like how our usual decimal system revolves around the number ten.
If I use "modern numerals" you then get 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, ↊ and ↋. Thus twelve itself represented in this way would be… you guessed it "10". The cool thing with twelve is that it's easily divisible by lots of other numbers (1, 2, 3, 4, and 6). This makes fractions like ½, ⅓, ¼ easier and cleaner than in base ten.
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If I use "modern numerals" you then get 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, ↊ and ↋. Thus twelve itself represented in this way would be… you guessed it "10". The cool thing with twelve is that it's easily divisible by lots of other numbers (1, 2, 3, 4, and 6). This makes fractions like ½, ⅓, ¼ easier and cleaner than in base ten.
Anyway the Egyptians used sundials during the day and water clocks at night [water clocks are like hour glasses but with water instead of sand] to keep track of time, dividing both day and night into 12 parts each. So a full day cycle is 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night, thus 24 hours [total].
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Anyway the Egyptians used sundials during the day and water clocks at night [water clocks are like hour glasses but with water instead of sand] to keep track of time, dividing both day and night into 12 parts each. So a full day cycle is 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night, thus 24 hours [total].
But if Egyptians used a duodecimal system, why not have 12 minutes to the hour? Well, they did have general terms for shorter time segments, used in certain religious or astronomical contexts but for the most part they didn't really count subsections of an hour quite as we do.
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But if Egyptians used a duodecimal system, why not have 12 minutes to the hour? Well, they did have general terms for shorter time segments, used in certain religious or astronomical contexts but for the most part they didn't really count subsections of an hour quite as we do.
The 60 actually comes from the Babylonians, who rather than a decimal or duodecimal numbering system used sexagesimal (base sixty) because it is even more highly divisible than 12! Babylonian astronomers applied this system to track celestial movements, which is intricately tied up with time measurements for hopefully obvious reasons. 😉
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The 60 actually comes from the Babylonians, who rather than a decimal or duodecimal numbering system used sexagesimal (base sixty) because it is even more highly divisible than 12! Babylonian astronomers applied this system to track celestial movements, which is intricately tied up with time measurements for hopefully obvious reasons. 😉
When mechanical clocks emerged centuries later, dividing hours into 60 minutes and minutes into 60 seconds made some sense since timekeeping was always closely tied to astronomy and so the sexagesimal logic carried over and it preserved the precision and divisibility of the Babylonian system.
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When mechanical clocks emerged centuries later, dividing hours into 60 minutes and minutes into 60 seconds made some sense since timekeeping was always closely tied to astronomy and so the sexagesimal logic carried over and it preserved the precision and divisibility of the Babylonian system.
Side note, in base ten, ten is written as 10, in base twelve, twelve is written 10. In sexagesimal, sixty would be 10. Those of you who know (or vaguely recall learning) binary (a.k.a. base two) from school, will also know that two is represented as 10.
For this reason I have avoided writting base-10 , base-12 and base-60 above. It is better IMHO to write out "base ten", "base twelve", etc.
Anyway, on that note, here is a joke for you.
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Side note, in base ten, ten is written as 10, in base twelve, twelve is written 10. In sexagesimal, sixty would be 10. Those of you who know (or vaguely recall learning) binary (a.k.a. base two) from school, will also know that two is represented as 10.
For this reason I have avoided writting base-10 , base-12 and base-60 above. It is better IMHO to write out "base ten", "base twelve", etc.
Anyway, on that note, here is a joke for you.
Anyway… decimal time. I mean we went the metric route, right (ok, not so much America)? So the advantage of decimal time would be using the base ten logic (which we are now most familiar with), all the way down: ten hours per day, one hundred minutes per hour, and hundred seconds per minute. This gives you easier calculations and conversions and aligns with other decimal based systems like meters and kilograms.
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Anyway… decimal time. I mean we went the metric route, right (ok, not so much America)? So the advantage of decimal time would be using the base ten logic (which we are now most familiar with), all the way down: ten hours per day, one hundred minutes per hour, and hundred seconds per minute. This gives you easier calculations and conversions and aligns with other decimal based systems like meters and kilograms.
If you are thinking, "Why didn't the French try this as well when they were working on the metric system?". They did, that is known as French Revolutionary Time. Between 1793–1800 they adopted decimal time, redesigning clocks and calendars. It did not stick. Here is why. They also redid the calendar, moving about all the holidays and introducing 10 day weeks.
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If you are thinking, "Why didn't the French try this as well when they were working on the metric system?". They did, that is known as French Revolutionary Time. Between 1793–1800 they adopted decimal time, redesigning clocks and calendars. It did not stick. Here is why. They also redid the calendar, moving about all the holidays and introducing 10 day weeks.
This wasn't popular, not least because you got one rest day a week in a longer week and also because people do not like moving their holidays. But more than that perhaps is that it does not solve the same problems that metrification did. You see before the metric system measurements were different… everywhere.
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This wasn't popular, not least because you got one rest day a week in a longer week and also because people do not like moving their holidays. But more than that perhaps is that it does not solve the same problems that metrification did. You see before the metric system measurements were different… everywhere.
Not just between countries but sometimes between towns. Additionally you could even have different measurement systems for things that could be measured the same way, e.g. milk and wine used different systems. What the metric system did is replace lots of different systems with one unified and logical system. That is clearly better and yet even this had a bunch of push back because people do not like to change the systems they already know (just ask the Americans).
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Not just between countries but sometimes between towns. Additionally you could even have different measurement systems for things that could be measured the same way, e.g. milk and wine used different systems. What the metric system did is replace lots of different systems with one unified and logical system. That is clearly better and yet even this had a bunch of push back because people do not like to change the systems they already know (just ask the Americans).
For time, the 12-24 hour system was already standard though much of the world. The advantages that decimal offer do not compete with the idea of throwing away a system that absolutely everyone already uses. In addition if you change a unit of length you just need to scratch a few new notches on your measuring stick. Maybe you also need to make or buy a new jug to measure volumes of wine.
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For time, the 12-24 hour system was already standard though much of the world. The advantages that decimal offer do not compete with the idea of throwing away a system that absolutely everyone already uses. In addition if you change a unit of length you just need to scratch a few new notches on your measuring stick. Maybe you also need to make or buy a new jug to measure volumes of wine.
But for time, you need to replace clocks and clocks (particularly big town clocks) were really expensive. Actually clocks and watches still are expensive (Casio, Skmei and Sanda fans might disagree).
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But for time, you need to replace clocks and clocks (particularly big town clocks) were really expensive. Actually clocks and watches still are expensive (Casio, Skmei and Sanda fans might disagree).
It's even more unlikely to happen in the future because the current standard of time is now further embedded into modern society. Most of the other metric measurements are now redefined to be based on the standard second. For example the metre is defined as the distance light travels in a vacuum in ¹⁄₂₉₉₇₉₂₄₅₈ of a second.
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It's even more unlikely to happen in the future because the current standard of time is now further embedded into modern society. Most of the other metric measurements are now redefined to be based on the standard second. For example the metre is defined as the distance light travels in a vacuum in ¹⁄₂₉₉₇₉₂₄₅₈ of a second.
And standard time is used for all kinds of stuff on the internet (that you do not want to break) and global positioning systems (that you also do not want to break). At best you could have a parallel system but who wants two systems of time?
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And standard time is used for all kinds of stuff on the internet (that you do not want to break) and global positioning systems (that you also do not want to break). At best you could have a parallel system but who wants two systems of time?
Actually using decimal time in parallel was tried. In 1998 Swatch introduced .beats (also known as Swatch Internet Time). This was an attempt to reinvent how we measure time in the digital age. Instead of hours and minutes, it divides the day into 1000 ".beats". These are exactly the same length of time as minutes in French Revolutionary Time, which makes sense when you think about it. Anyway a day starts at @ 000 and ends at @ 999.
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Actually using decimal time in parallel was tried. In 1998 Swatch introduced .beats (also known as Swatch Internet Time). This was an attempt to reinvent how we measure time in the digital age. Instead of hours and minutes, it divides the day into 1000 ".beats". These are exactly the same length of time as minutes in French Revolutionary Time, which makes sense when you think about it. Anyway a day starts at @ 000 and ends at @ 999.
Perhaps more interesting than the decimal part was that .beats only had a single time zone. Based on Swatch's Biel HQ in Switzerland, so @ 000 .beats starts at midnight in Switzerland. The idea here was that you never need to convert. If an event happens anywhere in the world it can be written in .beats. Great for international meetings, flight times, etc.
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Perhaps more interesting than the decimal part was that .beats only had a single time zone. Based on Swatch's Biel HQ in Switzerland, so @ 000 .beats starts at midnight in Switzerland. The idea here was that you never need to convert. If an event happens anywhere in the world it can be written in .beats. Great for international meetings, flight times, etc.
It didn't catch on and there are clues that this was pure marketing rather than an true effort to improve the world. It was not clear if other watch manufacturers could use the term ".beats". There was no need to move the prime meridian to Biel and so on.
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It didn't catch on and there are clues that this was pure marketing rather than an true effort to improve the world. It was not clear if other watch manufacturers could use the term ".beats". There was no need to move the prime meridian to Biel and so on.
Also if you want a universal time you can already do that by offering a time in UTC. Anyway it is still fun and you still find occasional references to it on the internet and in software. Here is one of my #Casio F-91Ws using @joeycastillo's super cool #SensorWatch module to show a time in .beats.
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Also if you want a universal time you can already do that by offering a time in UTC. Anyway it is still fun and you still find occasional references to it on the internet and in software. Here is one of my #Casio F-91Ws using @joeycastillo's super cool #SensorWatch module to show a time in .beats.
But before I end this, one more bit of trivia, while we might not get a decimal time in the future, we had one in the past, that lasted longer and was used by more people than the French attempt (or .beats). China used decimal based time divisions long before the adoption of Western systems back in the 17th century. Until 1645, the Chinese measured time using units like the kè (刻), which was typically defined as 1⁄100 of a day, thus making it a true decimal unit. 🎉
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