3 ms·
There was no need to standardize time until it became possible and common to travel fast enough that regular old sidereal time was insufficient and even dangero
by sverige 10y ago
There was no need to standardize time until it became possible and common to travel fast enough that regular old sidereal time was insufficient and even dangerous; i.e., until rail travel became common. It's only been 130 years since we all got pushed into the artificial noon most of us have today. (Some fortunate souls live on the line where it's actually noon when the clock says it is.)
- theoh 10y agoActually, your last line can only be true for mean solar time. The sun leads or lags mean solar time, by a varying amount described by the misleadingly-named Equation of Time. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_time#Apparent_solar_time https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_time#Apparent_solar_ti... (The annual variation is due to two main factors: the tilt of the Earth and the eccentricity of the Earth's orbit. I got asked about this in a programming interview once and couldn't remember! Never again.)
- Arelius 10y ago> I got asked about this in a programming interview once and couldn't remember! What specialty do you have where this is expected knowledge?