Re: CHAT: Telling time (wasRe: The English/French counting system (WAS: number systems fromconlangs))
| From: | Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...> |
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| Date: | Tuesday, September 16, 2003, 3:08 |
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On Mon, Sep 15, 2003 at 10:54:23PM -0400, Isidora Zamora wrote:
> Oops! I did not know that a lunar month was longer than 28 days. Now I
> know.
And Knowing is Half the Battle!
Sorry. Cartoon flashback. Ignore that. :)
The time between consecutive occurrences of a given phase of the
moon - called a "lunation" - varies over time, but at the moment
the mean value is about 29.5306 days. The value used in Hebrew
calendar calculations is 29 days, 12 793/1080 hours (the hour was
traditionally divided up into 1,080 parts called halakim (singular
helek) - a number chosen probably because it allowed precise
representation of that average lunation value.
-Mark