Re: Programming a calendar system

On Wednesday 28 April 2004 05:06 am, Carsten Becker wrote:
> From: "Sylvia Sotomayor" <kelen@...>
> Sent: Sunday, April 25, 2004 10:55 PM
> Subject: Re: Programming a calendar system (WAS: Re: I Should've Been
> ...)
>
> > OK, Here's the PHP for the Kelen calendar.
>
> Very nice! Thank you. Your script is awesome!
>
> > Holler if you have questions.
>
> I do so:
> > #64 Kelen seconds (ilin) make up an usin.
> > $kusn = $ksecs/64;
> > $ilin = $ksecs%64;
>
> What are the normal division and the modulo division good for? And what
> would I have to write when 72 seconds ($asec) are 1 minute ($amin)?
I think Mark Reed answered that one.

> > #Our planet is arbitrarily 1.45 au's away from a F8 star
> > $krev = round(sqrt(pow(1.45,3))*(365.24*24*60*60))/(1.5*64*12*8*12);
> > $kyr = $klon/$krev;
> > $lonj = $klon%$krev;
>
> Why is it so important that the planet is "arbitrarily 1.45 au's away
> from a F8 star"? Or is this just the section where the length of the
> year is dealt with? SQRT of the 3rd power of 1.45 etc. looks very much
> like one of Kepler's laws ... Not caring about any astronomical law I
> set 6 days = 1 week, averagely 25,333... days = 1 month, 18 months = 1
> year and 1 year = 456,25 days. Every 4th year one day is dropped.
This is the section where the length of the year is dealt with. The
arbitrary part is the F8 star, a little hotter, younger, and bigger than
ours. That puts the 'life-zone' further out. 1.45 au's is in the F8 life
zone. $krev is one of Kepler's laws with the appropriate numbers plugged
in.

FYI, the length of the day is also one of those arbitrary things that has
no real relationship to any of the other astronomical numbers. Your
calendar probably works, too. I'm just more concerned about the astronomy.

> > #Since in unix, the second count began on Jan 1, 1970,
> > #we will add an arbitrary 940 revolutions to the year.
> > #And we'll floor it to see which year we're in.
> > $year = floor(940 + $kyr);
>
> Linux counts from 1/1/1970 that's clear, but what are those "arbitrary
> 940 revolutions" for? Is it because the calendar has its starting point
> in 1030 AD?
It's because I didn't want the Kelen year to start on 1-1-1970. So I pulled
a number out of the hat, so that I could come up with something ~1000
years old.

Hope that helps,
-Sylvia

--
Sylvia Sotomayor
sylvia1@ix.netcom.com
kelen@ix.netcom.com

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