People like to shit on the imperial measurements for its inconsistensies, but why is it we have a similarly dogshit one for measuring time?
People like to shit on the imperial measurements for its inconsistensies, but why is it we have a similarly dogshit one for measuring time?
For example,
60 seconds = 1 minute
60 minutes = 1 hour
24 hours = 1 day
7 day = 1 week
29-31 days = Month (approx.)
365/366 days = year
It's like for the imperial measurement of distance, where 1 mile = 5280 feet...
Edit: just to clarify, I'm more or less keen towards any consistent, decimal-based measurement systems like base-10 or base-12.
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12 hours in half a day is fine for me. 12 can be divided into halves, thirds, quarters and sixths. That's useful for planning out a day. Time is one of the applications where I don't have a complaint about using base 12.
The real confusion is when you count the days in a month, or year...
I've heard of a suggestion of using 13 months of 4 weeks each.
It adds up to 364 days.
The remainder day is a new type of annual leap day and you get the additional normal one every 4 years.
This seems more consistent..
Exactly why there are 12 months and 24h a day, for easy divisions.
One can reach twelve joints on a 4-fingered hand with the thumb. That's the basis of the base-12 counting system.