Re: measuring systems (was: Selenites)

In a message dated 9/27/98 6:10:55 PM Pacific Daylight Time, fortytwo@UFL.EDU
writes:

<< Another reason is that 12 months divide up nicely into 4 seasons of 3
 months.  10 months divides into 4 seasons of 2.5 months.  Not very nice.

 > Yes, unlikely by that time.  I believe there was, infact, a proposal to
 > divide the day (i.e. from midnight to midnight) into 10ths, 100ths, 1000ths
 > etc.  It's quite feasible, of course.  But here the revolutionaries were up
 > against a tradition of more than 3000 years.

 And pure practicality.  Many buisnesses have 3 shifts for workers.  If
 you had 10 hours/day, you'd need an unweildy 3 hours, 33 minutes, 33-1/3
 seconds shift, or have one shift of 4 hours, and 2 of 3 hours.
 Measuring time has a great advantage if you can easily divide it up.
  >>

Interesting.  Don't refute the idea without further exploration, however.
Logically, it wouldn't be a "day" of 10 "hours"; rather, a "day" of 20
"hours"--daytime and nighttime.  Don't settle for a labor-oppressing 8-hour
day, but a 6 or 7 hour day.  Imagine a utopian and technologically permissable
5 hour day over 4 shifts.  Go-getters could have two different jobs of 5 hours
each.

We've made round numbers out of an awkward and arbitrary system.  How could a
decimal time system be conformed to our needs?

JAM