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Thread ID: 82484	2007-08-28 23:31:00	Why is an hour 1/24 or a day?	mejobloggs (264)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
585816	2007-09-02 11:01:00	Make the days 25 hours long and see where you get - soon the sun will be coming up at midnight, and it will be dark at lunchtime. You might fool the people, but the cows and birds will stick to the proper cycle. :waughh: :)	R2x1 (4628)
585817	2007-09-02 11:59:00	You all seem to have missed the point that it is possible to use any arbitrary measure you like for time, so long as it can be coordinated with the natural cycles of day/night and the four seasons . It doesn't matter what you choose, metric or whatever as long as you divide the time period for the rotation of the earth into equal periods and the multiples or submultiples work out . For convenience you want period suitable for breaking up the working day into manageable slices for work, play and sleep, but you could have 20 hour days if you wish, or 50 hour, or whatever . Our mathematics revolves around established conventions, but the conventions could easily be different . Think about it . . . . . . . . . Cheers Billy 8-{)	Billy T (70)
585818	2007-09-02 12:42:00	uh, i beleive the original post was asking why we chose to break a day up into 24, rather than any other arbitrary number...most of us (i hope) have realised that we could have 50 hours if we wished	motorbyclist (188)
585819	2007-09-03 01:44:00	It takes the earth approximately 24 and a quarter hours to spin fully on it's own axis (360 degrees). Hence why we have 24 hours in one day, and also why we have a leap year every 4 years because after 4 years all the additional quarters add up to an extra 24 hours. I thinks that's it... at least that's what I was told when I was at school. Cheers	chiefnz (545)
585820	2007-09-03 02:14:00	You all seem to have missed the point that it is possible to use any arbitrary measure you like for time, so long as it can be coordinated with the natural cycles of day/night and the four seasons. It doesn't matter what you choose, metric or whatever as long as you divide the time period for the rotation of the earth into equal periods and the multiples or submultiples work out. For convenience you want period suitable for breaking up the working day into manageable slices for work, play and sleep, but you could have 20 hour days if you wish, or 50 hour, or whatever. Our mathematics revolves around established conventions, but the conventions could easily be different. Think about it......... Cheers Billy 8-{) Really??????????	R2x1 (4628)
585821	2007-09-03 02:31:00	It takes the earth approximately 24 and a quarter hours to spin fully on it's own axis (360 degrees). Hence why we have 24 hours in one day, and also why we have a leap year every 4 years because after 4 years all the additional quarters add up to an extra 24 hours. I thinks that's it... at least that's what I was told when I was at school. Cheers Sorry chiefnz but that does not stand up to logic. First up the "hence we have 24 hours in one day" is circular logic - the question was why is an hour 1/24th of a day? That should be read in conjunction with why not 1/100th or 1/10th? As I have been saying all along (maybe Billy didn't read my posts) the hour was invented by humans and other than the fact we use 24 of these things to represent a day, the hour has no astronomical meaning whatsoever (unlike the day and year, which do). But more importantly, you mentioned each day was 24.25 hours which when added up over 4 years give us a leap year - I think if you do the maths we would need up with a lot more than one extra day - we would end up with something that is very close to a year (365 days x .25 hours x 4 years = 365 extra days). I believe you meant an extra 1/4 day per year perhaps? Maybe you only half heard that lesson.......:) Andrew	andrew93 (249)
585822	2007-09-03 02:54:00	The basis of geometry, calendars, time-keeping, currency etc were all established long ago by people who had a fascination with 12. Like 12 months, 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 in a dozen, 12 inches to the foot, 12d to a shilling. God knows why. Naturally they divided the day into 12 bits, and also the night. I wonder why we don't have 12 ounces to a pound and 12 pounds to a stone? 12 appears in many places but so does the number 3. 12 can also be viewed as 3 x 4 - a year is 4 seasons of 3 months each, the 12 zodiac signs are 4 groups of 3 signs etc. 3 also appears in lots of places - 3 wickets, 3 wishes, 3 login attempts, 3 strikes, triathlons, the 3 R's, third reich, trilogies, holy trinity, a base 10 number is divisible by 3 if the sum of the digits is divisible by 3, triceratops, 3 stars in Orion's belt, we live in a 3 dimensional world, and "Pacific's triple star" per our national anthem etc. Interesting stuff. The legend is that horses, which had had Sunday off for 4000 years, refused to work every seventh day of the new decimalised week. :lol: Wasn't the railway line width set according to the width of an average horse's rump?	andrew93 (249)
585823	2007-09-03 11:27:00	I wonder why we don't have 12 ounces to a pound and 12 pounds to a stone? 12 appears in many places but so does the number 3. 12 can also be viewed as 3 x 4 - a year is 4 seasons of 3 months each, the 12 zodiac signs are 4 groups of 3 signs etc. 3 also appears in lots of places - 3 wickets, 3 wishes, 3 login attempts, 3 strikes, triathlons, the 3 R's, third reich, trilogies, holy trinity, a base 10 number is divisible by 3 if the sum of the digits is divisible by 3, triceratops, 3 stars in Orion's belt, we live in a 3 dimensional world, and "Pacific's triple star" per our national anthem etc. Interesting stuff. :lol: Wasn't the railway line width set according to the width of an average horse's rump? Yeah. Some numbers had a significance which is lost to us now, but vestiges remain. These that we now observe originate in the Orient long ago, and are probably religious/superstitious in nature.	vinref (6194)
585824	2007-09-03 16:00:00	I partially agree with the assessment of the origin of numbers and numerology . The "months, weeks, season, years" part is a little off however . Life was observed to be cyclical in scheduling times to plant, harvest and when to expect rain, flooding, drought and travels of wandering herds for foods and furs for clothing . The yearly cycle was established when there were repeated activities on a regular schedule and then the months, days, hours were marked off to accommodate the ability to measure that was currently available . The 24 hour day came from the average observed time period of most people in the fertile crescent area and since ten (as in fingers or toes) were easily understandable, the "average daylight time was divided into ten units and then the hour of twilight and dawn becoming the extra hour on each end of the full daylight time for a total of 12 hours on the average of each day . Animal husbandry, life in general and farming and crop gathering/planting, etc, could all be only done while there was sufficient light with which to actually see what these people were doing . They were suspicious of the dark and they didn't like to go out into it for many reasons . These same superstitions then allowed for an equal number of hours when people were in darkness or asleep, hence the 24 hour concept . Most ancient peoples became obsessed with numerology as a way to make sense of times, seasons and happenstances of which they had no idea . Making life predictable was important to these people . The lunisolar calendar was in synchronization with the sun's yearly sojourn and the seasons could be fairly accurately predicted that way . A heliocentric planet system also gave rise to using the sun as a giant timekeeper, and this created a real mess with the original calendars that depended upon observations for planting seasons . Since the moon gave rise to another great time-divider, it was able to very accurately set up a "moonth" or "lunar" calendar that further divided the solar year into smaller chunks . This later transmuted into "month" and although it was found to not be a true divider of the solar year, it went along quite well with an "adjustment" to the months once in a few years or so . These were called "intercalary" months . The 365-base for the days in a year did not, thankfully, fall into general accounting and timekeeping . Can you imagine making change for a 365th of a dollar or meeting someone on the 234/365th hour of the day? This hopefully helps to understand the odd twelve number in use even today . .	SurferJoe46 (51)
585825	2007-09-03 23:58:00	The 24 hour day came from the average observed time period of most people in the fertile crescent area and since ten (as in fingers or toes) were easily understandable, the "average daylight time was divided into ten units and then the hour of twilight and dawn becoming the extra hour on each end of the full daylight time for a total of 12 hours on the average of each day. that's actually quite sensible it only took a few days and 39 posts, but i think we've found an answer!:thumbs:	motorbyclist (188)
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