4 ms·

It wouldn't take long before this calendar was inconsistent. The Earth rotates about 365 times before it returns to its previous spot in its orbit around the su

by jxf 4y ago

It wouldn't take long before this calendar was inconsistent. The Earth rotates about 365 times before it returns to its previous spot in its orbit around the sun. If you adopted a 360 day calendar (assuming you by "day" in this calendar system you mean "a 24-hour period"), then after just a decade of this calendar, summer would happen 50 days earlier than it does today.

JoeAltmaier 4y ago
Actually <pedant> it rotates 366 times, because each noon-to-noon it rotates 361 degrees. Just returning one face to the sun adds about one degree because of the earth's motion around the sun, and so adds exactly one rotation each year (each complete revolution around the sun) </pedant> <edited degrees>
- nsilvestri 4y ago
  Close, but I think you confused the 360 degrees of a circle with the ~365 days in a year. The extra nearly-one degree of rotation in a solar day brings us to a hair under 361 degrees ;)
saalweachter 4y ago
And? Mars has 687 days in its time around the sun.
- jxf 4y ago
  A calendar designed to convey Earth's seasons doesn't have anything to do with Mars. Moreover, no one lives on Mars.
8organicbits 4y ago
Locking the calendar to the seasons is really valuable if you work on a farm or do other seasonal work. However, anyone who doesn't need to track the seasons may prefer the 6/5/30/12 simplified model. There would be some adjustment, like "winter" holidays occurring in the summer. Although anyone who lives in different climates or moves between the northern and southern hemispheres will already experience something similar. A good question may be how often would you need to calculate or look up something that the other calendar would make obvious. The better calendar (for you) is the one that reduces those occurrences.
- woojoo666 4y ago
  I think you're understating these adjustments. Christmas happening in the summer? School "summer break" happening during winter? These are massive changes
  - 8organicbits 4y ago
    I don't think either of those adjustment would occur. I know my highschool didn't have AC, so the summer break needed to happen in the summer. I expect the school year would continue to follow the seasons (unless, maybe, we had really cheap AC?). It would be strange to have the school year start in different months, but you'd get used to it. I know I already need to look up when the school year starts; it shifts a little already due to holidays and the days of the week. Personally, I grew up with cold winters and liked Christmas as a snowy winter holiday. But when I moved and had warmer winters and less defined seasons, Christmas came and it didn't really feel like winter. A summer Christmas wouldn't be noticeably different here. I like the idea of a major winter holiday for anyone struggling through a cold winter. For many people, that's currently Christmas, and I suspect the US and similar climates would benefit from keeping it seasonal.
- threatofrain 4y ago
  How is seasonal data important for modern farming operations? Farms want even more precise weather data which they can augment to their own calendars. Most people care far more about weekly weather variations and will not experience difficulty in determining when summer is coming. Also, given the variation that people experience across geography, my per-month weather is quite different from yours. A global synchrony is not fit for farming operations. How much of the world even experiences a beautiful alignment of the seasons to their calendar? Further, the kinds of adjustments people are proposing is not going to knock anyone off their ability to schedule around entire seasons. People are proposing tiny roundoffs to eliminate calendar idiosyncrasies (excluding the offhand 360 suggestion, which while "small" is going to lead to more idiosyncrasy).
- munificent 4y ago
  > Locking the calendar to the seasons is really valuable if you work on a farm or do other seasonal work. Or wants annual holidays to predictably fall during a certain season. "Grandpa, what was it like in the days when it was cold outside during Christmas?"
otikik 4y ago
So, adjust with up to 6 days of world wide holidays depending on the year and problem solved :)

by jxf 4y ago

JoeAltmaier 4y ago

Actually <pedant> it rotates 366 times, because each noon-to-noon it rotates 361 degrees. Just returning one face to the sun adds about one degree because of the earth's motion around the sun, and so adds exactly one rotation each year (each complete revolution around the sun) </pedant> <edited degrees>

nsilvestri 4y ago
Close, but I think you confused the 360 degrees of a circle with the ~365 days in a year. The extra nearly-one degree of rotation in a solar day brings us to a hair under 361 degrees ;)

saalweachter 4y ago

And? Mars has 687 days in its time around the sun.

jxf 4y ago
A calendar designed to convey Earth's seasons doesn't have anything to do with Mars. Moreover, no one lives on Mars.

8organicbits 4y ago

Locking the calendar to the seasons is really valuable if you work on a farm or do other seasonal work. However, anyone who doesn't need to track the seasons may prefer the 6/5/30/12 simplified model. There would be some adjustment, like "winter" holidays occurring in the summer. Although anyone who lives in different climates or moves between the northern and southern hemispheres will already experience something similar. A good question may be how often would you need to calculate or look up something that the other calendar would make obvious. The better calendar (for you) is the one that reduces those occurrences.

woojoo666 4y ago
I think you're understating these adjustments. Christmas happening in the summer? School "summer break" happening during winter? These are massive changes
- 8organicbits 4y ago
  I don't think either of those adjustment would occur. I know my highschool didn't have AC, so the summer break needed to happen in the summer. I expect the school year would continue to follow the seasons (unless, maybe, we had really cheap AC?). It would be strange to have the school year start in different months, but you'd get used to it. I know I already need to look up when the school year starts; it shifts a little already due to holidays and the days of the week. Personally, I grew up with cold winters and liked Christmas as a snowy winter holiday. But when I moved and had warmer winters and less defined seasons, Christmas came and it didn't really feel like winter. A summer Christmas wouldn't be noticeably different here. I like the idea of a major winter holiday for anyone struggling through a cold winter. For many people, that's currently Christmas, and I suspect the US and similar climates would benefit from keeping it seasonal.
threatofrain 4y ago
How is seasonal data important for modern farming operations? Farms want even more precise weather data which they can augment to their own calendars. Most people care far more about weekly weather variations and will not experience difficulty in determining when summer is coming. Also, given the variation that people experience across geography, my per-month weather is quite different from yours. A global synchrony is not fit for farming operations. How much of the world even experiences a beautiful alignment of the seasons to their calendar? Further, the kinds of adjustments people are proposing is not going to knock anyone off their ability to schedule around entire seasons. People are proposing tiny roundoffs to eliminate calendar idiosyncrasies (excluding the offhand 360 suggestion, which while "small" is going to lead to more idiosyncrasy).
munificent 4y ago
> Locking the calendar to the seasons is really valuable if you work on a farm or do other seasonal work. Or wants annual holidays to predictably fall during a certain season. "Grandpa, what was it like in the days when it was cold outside during Christmas?"

otikik 4y ago

So, adjust with up to 6 days of world wide holidays depending on the year and problem solved :)