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I do like the idea of variable length 'true' days as a more exact measure of the world around us but the thought terrifies me as a programmer (or even someone w
by noah_buddy 5y ago
I do like the idea of variable length 'true' days as a more exact measure of the world around us but the thought terrifies me as a programmer (or even someone who needs to get practical things done). It's so much easier to reason about time in standard units even if they're wrong. Now if we were to eliminate day light savings, that would be a greatly appreciated change.
- gumby 5y agoThere’s precedent: the Babylonian day was 12 hours long; the night likewise. They knew sunrise and sunset so could set a given day’s hour to be 1/12th of the difference (and likewise the night’s). They clearly knew the extreme cases (the solstices and equinoxes) but I don’t know if they actually adjusted each day; I don’t know how they actually market the hours, much less why they would bother. Even the “minute” (small part) and “second” (the second division) were measured only due to the development of technology that allowed it.
- hashimotonomora 5y agoTo clarify, daylight was divided in 12 periods of equal length called “hours”, as well as nighttime. This length depended on the day of the year, when measured with the current definition of hour. 24 hours was always a complete day.