this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2023
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Comradeship // Freechat

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For example,

60 seconds = 1 minute

60 minutes = 1 hour

24 hours = 1 day

7 day = 1 week

29-31 days = Month (approx.)

365/366 days = year

It's like for the imperial measurement of distance, where 1 mile = 5280 feet...

Edit: just to clarify, I'm more or less keen towards any consistent, decimal-based measurement systems like base-10 or base-12.

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[–] Munrock@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

12 hours in half a day is fine for me. 12 can be divided into halves, thirds, quarters and sixths. That's useful for planning out a day. Time is one of the applications where I don't have a complaint about using base 12.

[–] Franfran2424@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Exactly why there are 12 months and 24h a day, for easy divisions.

[–] AOCapitulator@hexbear.net 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think the 12 months thing is more due to the cycle of the moon being about 12 per year right?

[–] Franfran2424@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah, 12.4 moon cycles a year.

[–] Lemmywontallowme@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

The real confusion is when you count the days in a month, or year...

[–] silent_water@hexbear.net 2 points 1 year ago

those come from the conflict between the solar and lunar calendars

we eat captured solar energy and rely on tides & animal behavior which is connected to lunar cycles, the sun and the moon are what our efforts to measure time are hinged on at the macro level. the biggest problem is that the sun and moon do not sync up neatly in their movements. there are solar calendars and lunar calendars and attempts to merge them are difficult mathematically.

for example:

Since each lunation is approximately 29+1⁄2 days, it is common for the months of a lunar calendar to alternate between 29 and 30 days. Since the period of 12 such lunations, a lunar year, is 354 days, 8 hours, 48 minutes, 34 seconds (354.36707 days), purely lunar calendars are 11 to 12 days shorter than the solar year. In purely lunar calendars, which do not make use of intercalation, the lunar months cycle through all the seasons of a solar year over the course of a 33–34 lunar-year cycle.

[–] Kolrami@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've heard of a suggestion of using 13 months of 4 weeks each.

It adds up to 364 days.

The remainder day is a new type of annual leap day and you get the additional normal one every 4 years.

[–] Lemmywontallowme@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 1 year ago

This seems more consistent..

[–] freagle@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 1 year ago

One can reach twelve joints on a 4-fingered hand with the thumb. That's the basis of the base-12 counting system.