Time is a silly concept.
- Thread starter Aldo
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What interests me about time is the way we measure it. How did it become universal? Sure, we measure the days by the sun's rise and fall, but who decided ho to divide the day into 24 hours? Who decided that an hour had 60 minutes, that a minute had 60 seconds? Was there a time in history where that wasn't the case? Did some cultures divide the days differently? At what point did there become a global standard for measuring time?
The Babylonians found a base 60 system easier to measure than a base 10 or base 100. The French did introduce metric time, but everyone decided that they were used to their base 60 system, so it was abandoned. In other words, it developed over time and became accepted because people liked it.
This page gives an overview of the history of timekeeping. Interesting stuff, and funny how little has changed in 5000 years.
I believe 360-degrees was derived from the year being approximately that number of days long, and no doubt inspired by the "circle of the year" concept. 360 is better than 365 because it has lots of nice divisors (360 = 2^3 . 3^2 . 5 ), so is good for dividing things into various equal shares: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, etc.
Base 60 fits into that as a courser graduation, which we use for minutes and seconds of angle.
Base 12 is again a courser graduation, and retains the most useful divisors: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 12.
We often bundle material produce in powers of the base (10 , 100, 1000, etc), yet the human need to repeatedly divide material things into 2 or 3 parts is as common as it has always been. The duodecimal base is ideally suited to that, so is arguably better than the decimal base we use today.
In the olden days, things were often bundled into dozens (12 units) and grosses (144 units).
See how easy it is to divide an hour into 2, 3, or 4 parts. That would not be straight forward with decimal time. Monetary transactions also have benefits in duodecimal numeracy.
Base 60 fits into that as a courser graduation, which we use for minutes and seconds of angle.
Base 12 is again a courser graduation, and retains the most useful divisors: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 12.
We often bundle material produce in powers of the base (10 , 100, 1000, etc), yet the human need to repeatedly divide material things into 2 or 3 parts is as common as it has always been. The duodecimal base is ideally suited to that, so is arguably better than the decimal base we use today.
In the olden days, things were often bundled into dozens (12 units) and grosses (144 units).
See how easy it is to divide an hour into 2, 3, or 4 parts. That would not be straight forward with decimal time. Monetary transactions also have benefits in duodecimal numeracy.
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Well... there is a beginning to time; it's called "The Big Bang".
Whether an 'other end' of time exists seems to be debatable and b efore we have an answer to that there's no sense in talking about a 'middle'...
I can't seem to make up my mind on whether Gene Ray's ramblings are funny or just sad.
They say he has a pocket watch with that sentence engraved -I'd love to have such a thing
Gene Ray is awesome and Nature's Four-Day Harmonious Simultaneous TimeCube will reign supreme, just you wait. 
It can be re-written.
Wibbly-wobbly, and all that.
Wibbly-wobbly, and all that.
People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but *actually* from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff
Time is the boss of me.
I'd think biological rhythms and structures play a role in there somewhere also.
East coast America is 5 hours behind England. West coast is 8 hours behind. If you keep going west, you'll keep going back in time... and if you circle the earth you'll have lost one day.
So if you circle the earth in less than 24 hours, you'll have moved back in time. So if you keep circling the earth, you'll keep moving back in time.
But that can't be done because planes can't fly that fast.
^ my dad believes this.
So if you circle the earth in less than 24 hours, you'll have moved back in time. So if you keep circling the earth, you'll keep moving back in time.
But that can't be done because planes can't fly that fast.
^ my dad believes this.
what if I stand at the north pole and spin "counter clockwise?" How many times do I need to spin to get out of this crazy timewarp?
Time is the stuff that stops everything from happening at once.
lets change the concept of time ok?
lets make it like looping into nothing and exploding into everything then make ..,
I can go on on and on on and on on on
time to make time, anyone know how to make extra time?
we can expand time condense time go overtime go undertime., time management is almost a course at the university these days.., those days the other day that is..
time for work.,
gmt-5 woot
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lets make it like looping into nothing and exploding into everything then make ..,
I can go on on and on on and on on on
time to make time, anyone know how to make extra time?
we can expand time condense time go overtime go undertime., time management is almost a course at the university these days.., those days the other day that is..
time for work.,
gmt-5 woot
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