bobbyjohn Loc: Dallas, TX

Can you devise a way to put the "measurement of time" into a metric system? ... so instead of 60 seconds, 60 minutes, 24 hours, 7 days, 52 weeks, 12 months, 1 year, all such would be based on the number 10. The only constants would be a day is one rotation of the earth, and a year is one trip around the sun.

That would mean that the designations: seconds, minutes, hours, weeks, months --- can be made longer or shorter, or even eliminated, so long as they are based on the number 10.

Note: This idea came from one of my UHH responses to another post...but I though it should have its own thread.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

They'd have to redefine the units of time we use for the new duration or come up with new nomenclature.
...and a correlation factors for each to the old way.

I doubt it would fly.

Then there is the problem of our "time units" being relative to Earth.
Would interstellar time be different? Maybe we need to come up with an interstellar time system instead.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Days and years don't lend themselves to a metric system. A year is approximately 365.2425 days (leading to the current leap year determination -- 4 years between leap years with exceptions for 100 and 400 year intervals) but the day length is not a constant (which would be required for a metric system) but changes by small amounts due to redistribution of elements within the earth. That means the year length in days is not a constant, but will require further revision of the fractional days in a year.

The current (1997) definition of the second is based on the frequency of a photon emitted from a cesium atom from the lowest two hyperfine energy levels with the atom at rest at a temperature of 0K. Minutes and Hours are integral multiples of that number. Days as noted above are variable numbers from that. Years are defined by astronomical events based on the motion of the earth in its orbit around the sun. I would expect that would also be a variable due to gravitational attractions between the earth and the various planets (and other components of the solar system).

On the whole, I don't think it is possible to define anything beyond seconds, minutes, and hours on a consistent basis. That opinion is based on my assumption of a constant relationship between elements within a metric system, and by constant I mean that the ratio of two elements does not vary more than the accuracy of measurement of the elements.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Thanks for the reminder. I thought the second was based on the cesium clock.
They would need a different basis...

bikinkawboy Loc: north central Missouri

Dirtfarmer, great explanation! And bobbyjohn, have you been watching Star Trek? What you’re talking about sounds like their measurement of time.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

One problem of defining a year based on the definition of a second is seen by the difference between the original Julian definition of the leap year to the Gregorian definition (with the 100 and 400 year exceptions). The date got 10 days out of sync with the seasons and the change from Julian to Gregorian calendar resulted in all sorts of problems. Catholic countries adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1582 but Protestant countries did not adopt the calendar until 1752. So the calendars were out of sync by 12 days by that time.

BebuLamar

In the SI system (which is basically metric) the second is the unit of time. And thus you can have millisecond, microsecond or kilosecond and megasecond.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

So I'm now about 2.65 Gigaseconds old. Hoping to make it to 3.16 Gigaseconds.

alberio Loc: Casa Grande AZ

Time is a figment of our imagination. Just another definition of motion. JMUO.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

I guess I have an active imagination. Will try to keep it that way.

PoppieJ Loc: North Georgia

you could always use the same time measurements that they use in Iceland, where nobody is ever late because time really is not that important

BebuLamar

So Bobby it's all metric now.

fetzler Loc: North West PA

This was done in the time of Napoleon and is referred to as metric time. I have a computer program which displays metric time. In this system there are 10 hours per day, 100 minutes per hour,and 100 seconds. The length of each of the units differs from those in customary use.

One can use the metric time to form a decimal number of the form 0.HMMSS. The units of the decimal number are then decidays. If the decimal time is combined with the modified Julian day number then one has a continuous numerical accounting of time. In practice, there are some difficulties when using this system over long periods of time because of various calendar changes the most problematic is the random insertion of leap seconds of conventional size in the last few decades.

Microsoft Excel uses the modified Julian day number and decimal time for calendar calculations as do other programs.

Does this not remind you of star date. Indeed it should.

srg

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

And that's as far as it goes.