Re: Metric Time (was Re: Why not 13 months? (Was La Systeme Metrique))
Robert Roosen (roosen@crash.cts.com)
2 Oct 1995 19:42:45 GMT
Great idea. In order to redefine the second, do you suggest changing the
speed of light on a regular basis, or going back to pendulum clocks as
standards and changing the gravitational constant :-)
Robert the Second
Steve Nicholas
(steven@lndn.tensor.pgs.com) wrote:
: It is my opinion that time should be decimalised thereby doing away with the needs
: for standards for dates and times. For example, a year would represent the integer
: part and any subdivision the fraction. It would be difficult to impliment initially
: as people would see it as confusing but eventually people would come to use it
: easily and become familiar with what happens when just by remembering their
: fraction. At the moment there are exactly 31 556 925.97 seconds per year
: (definition).
: This isn't a very round number so if we redefine the length of a second to fit in
: 100 000 000 per year we could term:
: Jan 1st 00:00:01 1996.00000001
: Dec 31st 23:59:59 1996.99999999
: Of course we would need subdivisions of this metric system bearing in mind the
: redefined second:
: Term length in seconds old length in seconds rough equivalent
: Year 100 000 000 seconds 31 556 925.97 exactly one year
: deci-year 10 000 000 seconds 3 155 692.60 36.5 days
: milli-year 10 000 seconds 31 556.93 7.5 hours
: micro-year 10 seconds 3.16 3 seconds
: Unfortunately as with the king who wanted everything in the land square, the number
: of days doesn't fit into the number of years exactly and there is no easy way of
: recognising the actual date from the metric time. The new day length in seconds
: would be a somewhat unround 27265.18 seconds so that:
: Jan 1st 00:00:01 1996.00000001
: Jan 2nd 00:00:01 1996.0002726518
: Jan 3rd 00:00:01 1996.0005453037
: There can be advantages in such a system and I'm sure the second could be redefined
: for certain applications where syncronicity is required. Of course the number of
: decimal places will define *any* time to that level of accuracy right down to the
: timing of events in particle accelerators.
: As with the more simplified version of the Julian date I think this system would
: have its uses although redefining the second has huge implications. This is
: notwithstanding the occasional addition of a leap day and leap seconds which would
: mean we would have to continuously redefine the second to make sure that there were
: 100 000 000 seconds in a year.
: --
: Steve Nicholas,
: PGS Tensor(UK) Ltd.
: PGS House, Mayfield Road, Walton on Thames, Surrey, KT12 5PL, UK
: steven@lndn.tensor.pgs.com | Phone +44 1932 262853 | Fax +44 1932 262884
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