Re: measuring systems (was: Selenites)

At 2:45 pm +1000 28/9/98, Simon Kissane wrote:
[....]
>Even on earth today, in modern society, there isn't an enormous need to
>keep the calendar and seasons in check. Except in agriculture, no one
>really cares if the seasons don't start at the same time each year.
>And farmers could use tables or computers to work it out. A 360 day
>year with no leap years would make life so much simpler.
>
>As has already been mentioned, the Muslims get along fine with a
>calendar that is often very out of sync with the seasons.
...only if they live in the tropics.  Many of my students are Muslims so I
get to know some of their reactions.

At present as Ramadan is falling in the winter, they find the month of
fasting quite easy to keep (tho one or two next year will probably find it
hard to fast while their pagan friends feast during the days approaching &
including 25th Dec.).  But when Ramadan falls in mid-summer then the fast
becomes quite grim in these northerly latitudes (especially the prohobition
on drinking any liquids between sunrise & sunset), and some do not think
their purely lunar calendar is quite so good.

>(Plus, it would mean that birthdays, anniversaries, etc. wouldn't
>be stuck at the same time of year for your whole life).
All right for birthdays - but people get sort of hung up about other things
like Christmas and, I guess in the US, Thanksgiving.  Anyway, one gets used
to a kind of rhythm of things - when September passes into October I expect
to notice leaves changing color; I don't expect snow in mid-June etc etc.

And wouldn't various sporting bodies be put out somewhat? Soccer seems now
to be played nearly all year round, but other sports over here are somewhat
more seasonal.  Cricket is essentially a summer sport & many clubs, I
think, have fairly fixed schedules almost like the changing of a religious
calender with its different feast days: "Ah, we always plays Ebernoe on the
third Saturday in June".  I'm sure other parts of the world have seasonal
sports.

Personally, I've never found any problem with a solar year of a little less
than 365.25 days.  I really see no advantage of an artifical year of 360
days - and I just cannot see how it'd make life simpler!

Ray.

PS - At 2:27 am -0500 28/9/98, Carlos Thompson wrote:
.....
>If we remember we use base ten because we have ten fingers.  If I'm not
>mistaken greeks used a base five system from where the word "count" comes
>from, five is the number of fingers in one hand.
Sorry - on that one you are mistaken.  The Greek for 5 is 'pente'
(pronounced /pEndE/ in the modern language); "count" <-- Latin
'computa:re'.  And the Greeks, both ancient & modern, counted & still count
in the boring ol' base 10 system.