Re: number bases (was without subject)
| From: | Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Tuesday, January 13, 2004, 20:16 |
|---|
On Tue, Jan 13, 2004 at 11:40:30AM -0800, David Zitzelsberger wrote:
> Also I believe the Babylonias (I fairly sure the Egyptians) had a seven-day
> week because of the number of wanderers (greek word is planet) in the
> heavens.
Yup. (Didn't we just talk about this on here recently?)
Originally the planets were used to name the hours of the day,
in descending order of how long it took them to move around the sky:
Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon. Eventually the
planet associated with the first hour of each day (whatever hour
that may have been: sunset, noon, sunrise, or midnight; doesn't matter)
became used to name the whole day. Since there are 24 hours in a day,
that resulted in the modern weekday order:
Saturn Jupiter Mars Sun Venus Mercury Moon
Saturday 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23
Sunday 0 1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23
Monday 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23
Tuesday 0 1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23
Wednesday 0 1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23
Thursday 0 1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23
Friday 0 1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
If we were still using this system, with our modern midnight-based
clock, then right now in the US Eastern time zone it's 15:15 on
a Tuesday, which would be the hour of the Sun.
-Mark