Re: measuring time

Hey!

Now I've finally got a new computer (fast, though loud as hell), but no
Linux yet and this also means I cannot use KMail but only stupid Outlook
Express 6. So no nice Curan Tertanyan date in the sig anymore until I
bought
a secondary HD to install Linux on. My birthday is in 69 days (born
8/26/86), so I "only" have to wait until the end of August to hopefully get
a harddisk.

From: "Ray Brown" <ray.brown@...>
Sent: Friday, June 17, 2005 8:35 PM
Subject: Re: measuring time

 > One time reference that does seem universal is noon - I don't mean 12.00
 > but true noon, i.e. when the sun is directly overhead. It also seems
 > fairly 'natural' to divide the pre-noon and post-noon periods into two
 > halves. some system like this would emerge:
 > morning - forenoon - afternoon - evening.
 > Thus daylight from sunrise to sunset is divided into four (like the old
 > Roman division of darkness).

My non-technological people a.k.a. Ayeri people live in the tropics of
Areca, so that means AFAIK that sunrise, noon and sunset is always
*approximately* at the same time (yes, I know about the convergency zone or
how it's called). Days start at sunrise and night begins at sunset. So
there
is an unequal division of the day into three parts:

   sunrise -> noon:    morning       (beneno)
   noon    -> sunset:  afternoon     (nangimo)
   sunset  -> sunrise: evening/night (sirutay)

There is additionally the division into "early" and "normal" and "late":

   1/3 between sunrise and noon:    early morning
   2/3 between sunrise and noon:          morning
   3/3 between sunrise and noon:    late  morning

   1/3 between noon    and sunset:  early afternoon
   2/3 between noon    and sunset:        afternoon
   3/3 between noon    and sunset:  late  afternoon

   1/3 between sunset  and sunrise: early night (English: evening)
   2/3 between sunset  and sunrise:       night
   3/3 between sunset  and sunrise: late  night (English: early morning)

 > How do these people count? In tens, by dozens,

Mine count by dozens because 12 is divisible into six factors (1, 2, 3, 4,
6, 12) and ten only into 4 (1, 2, 5, 10). My conpeople are supposed to have
only 8 fingers, though. If they considered including their toes into
counting, you could even have a natural hexadecimal system. Ayeri has
unique
number names up to 16 anyway, just like French.

Cheers,
Carsten

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