4 ms·

What a terrible calendar do we currently have. One guy offered this one: 28x13=364. In that case we have 13 months each of 28 days. Strict 4 weeks in one month.

What a terrible calendar do we currently have. One guy offered this one: 28x13=364. In that case we have 13 months each of 28 days. Strict 4 weeks in one month. 365 and 366 are non-calendar holidays.

berkes 5y ago
You'd still need leap-days, then, though. Otherwise, in 150 years, june, or whatever is the 6th month, has drifted from summer to winter (or viceversa) by then. Another issue, is that while 28 is neatly divisible, 13 is not. What is half a year? When do you make up the numbers for Q3? etc. It introduces so much issues, that the net-benefit is hardly there.
Taek 5y ago
That sounds pretty fun. Imagine moving leap day to New Years, so that every once in a while we have a 2 day party instead of a one day party.
- toast0 5y ago
  That's what we have, september is month 7, october is month 8, november is month 9, december is month 10, february is the last month, and february 29 is an intercalary day. Someone just fucked up the offset at some point.
yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
> 365 and 366 are non-calendar holidays. Except that people can still be born and die and check in and out of hospitals on those days, so you have to be able to record those days, so they immediately get back onto the calendar but in a far uglier and more hacky way than the entire system that you just tried to replace.
Tempest1981 5y ago
Just curious why 7 days is the optimal week-length? Why not 8 days (5 work, 3 day weekend)? Or 6 days (4 + 2)
- kenny11 5y ago
  Pretty sure this explains the origins of the seven day week: By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
  - dTal 5y ago
    But why did God take 6 days?
- yitchelle 5y ago
  According to [0] Discovery article, the Babylonians were the originators of the 7 day week, and it was named for the 7 known planets at the time. [0] - https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/why-are-there-seven-days-in-a-week https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/why-are-there-...
adrianmonk 5y ago
13 months improves some things, but it does not work well for 4 seasons. There are two definitions of seasons. In the simpler one, they start March 1, June 1, September 1, and December 1. (In the other, they are truer to astronomy and start about 20 days later.) With 13 months in a year, that would be a lot messier. Since there is symmetry to the year, it makes sense to divide it into a number of pieces that works well with that symmetry. 12 pieces makes sense because it's a multiple of 4. If you look at the length of days as a function of year, it resembles a sine wave. You wouldn't create a unit of angular measurement where one full circle is 13 units. (You'd have trig identities like sin(x+13/4)=cos(x)!) There would be similar disadvantages if you divided a year into 13 pieces.

What a terrible calendar do we currently have. One guy offered this one: 28x13=364. In that case we have 13 months each of 28 days. Strict 4 weeks in one month. 365 and 366 are non-calendar holidays.

berkes 5y ago

You'd still need leap-days, then, though. Otherwise, in 150 years, june, or whatever is the 6th month, has drifted from summer to winter (or viceversa) by then. Another issue, is that while 28 is neatly divisible, 13 is not. What is half a year? When do you make up the numbers for Q3? etc. It introduces so much issues, that the net-benefit is hardly there.

Taek 5y ago

That sounds pretty fun. Imagine moving leap day to New Years, so that every once in a while we have a 2 day party instead of a one day party.

toast0 5y ago
That's what we have, september is month 7, october is month 8, november is month 9, december is month 10, february is the last month, and february 29 is an intercalary day. Someone just fucked up the offset at some point.

yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago

> 365 and 366 are non-calendar holidays. Except that people can still be born and die and check in and out of hospitals on those days, so you have to be able to record those days, so they immediately get back onto the calendar but in a far uglier and more hacky way than the entire system that you just tried to replace.

Tempest1981 5y ago

Just curious why 7 days is the optimal week-length? Why not 8 days (5 work, 3 day weekend)? Or 6 days (4 + 2)

kenny11 5y ago
Pretty sure this explains the origins of the seven day week: By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
- dTal 5y ago
  But why did God take 6 days?
yitchelle 5y ago
According to [0] Discovery article, the Babylonians were the originators of the 7 day week, and it was named for the 7 known planets at the time. [0] - https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/why-are-there-seven-days-in-a-week https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/why-are-there-...

adrianmonk 5y ago

13 months improves some things, but it does not work well for 4 seasons. There are two definitions of seasons. In the simpler one, they start March 1, June 1, September 1, and December 1. (In the other, they are truer to astronomy and start about 20 days later.) With 13 months in a year, that would be a lot messier. Since there is symmetry to the year, it makes sense to divide it into a number of pieces that works well with that symmetry. 12 pieces makes sense because it's a multiple of 4. If you look at the length of days as a function of year, it resembles a sine wave. You wouldn't create a unit of angular measurement where one full circle is 13 units. (You'd have trig identities like sin(x+13/4)=cos(x)!) There would be similar disadvantages if you divided a year into 13 pieces.