Decimal Time- the ultimate CS

No true clean slate solution can can possibly not fix our bizarre calendar.
A second is an SI unit measure in base 10, so it follows logically that there really should be 100 seconds to the minute, a hundred minutes to the hour, a day is the precise length it's calculated to be to the milisecond as controlled from a central nuclear clock, with a steady 365 days in a year a week can become five days long with a one day weekend and thus there is exactly 73 weeks in a year which breaks down into exactly eleven months of six weeks each and twelfth with seven, extra for winter holiday.
Now that is a clean slate solution.

I've often thought of this, and I know that such systems have been proposed before (even implemented briefly in France, I think). Such systems may have their merits, but be sure not to change the value of the second, as most of the SI system is based on this. With this in mind, I can probably get used to basing everything around the second and kilosecond. There would be 86.4 kiloseconds to the day, for example. I think a kilosecond would roughly equal a quarter-hour.

Of course the entire point is that the second is an SI unit. It's just stupid that time is both decimal and heximal (is that right?). every new_minute=1.66*old_minute=100 seconds
new_hour=100*new_minute=166.66*old_minute=10000 seconds
new_day=~86400 seconds= 864 new_minutes = 8.64 new_hours=~ old_day
(adjusted remotely day by day to produce the perfect astronomical year, ever year)

I would say retain the second, but then also have a new, natural unit-such as the time it takes light to go from the sun to the earth- 8.31 minutes.

There would be 173.285199in a day, but shorten it to 8.22857143, you get exactly 175. That's how long it takes light to travel .989 AU, within earth's orbit. Almost exactly the location of L1.

Call it an Copern after Copernicus.

any opinions?

Personally, I was just trying to reshape things around the SI unit and get rid of this bizarre multiple of 60 thing. I'm not sure of the value of actually having a new unit.

well the second is basically arbitrarily chosen as 1/60 of 1/60 of 1/24 of one day.

I will get around to redefining metric units if necessary. What about the Metre, though? That one is more or less arbitrary as well. I would suggest that instead of using the meter, we use the distance light travels in one Copern.

That's 148 million kilometers, or one Tole (ptolmy). 1 billionth of that would be 1.48 meters or 1 nanoTole. Then there would be a 1.48 centimeter unit, the picoTole. The 1.48 KM unit would be the microTole, etc.

According to wikipedia:
Under the International System of Units, the second is currently defined as
“ the duration of 9 192 631 770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium 133 atom. This definition refers to a caesium atom at rest at a temperature of 0 K.”
and the metre as:
the length as equal to the distance travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299,792,458 of a second.

yes, but those were arbitrarily chosen.

The point was that the metre is defined by the second, but your new unit of time is defined by a length, thus isn't your new unit actually defined by the second?

well no, It is defined by the distance from the sun to Earth L1 when earth is at a position equal to its semi-major axis about the sun. I gave it in meters for convenience.

Remember, when they tried to implement that system in France they failed miserably.

So, one society is using Decitime, the rest are using Hexatime. International trade?

The year should remain both Lunar and Solar. I believe that gives us 13 lunar months with a few odd days to delegate as a national holiday.

yes, that sounds about right. Byt I would say 18 months, each 20 days, and 5 for nat'l holidays.

But that's the clean slate problem isn't it? If this is truly a clean slate city then we should not be worrying about fitting in, should we? The moment you start saying 'yes we could do that, but given no one else is, is it really such a good idea?' a whole slew of good, clever ideas leave the table.

I agree completely.

lkm wrote:

If this is truly a clean slate city then we should not be worrying about fitting in, should we?

Well spotted. A true 'clean-slate' is pretty much impossible. Compromise is inevitable and therefore I suggest that any instances of compromise (regarding international trade, etc.) should be well calculated to be in the CSCS' favor.

- Mike

Thinking about it, I withdraw my previous units of distance and time, because they are more or less arbitrarily chosen as well.

Instead, I suggest these (as base units):


Length: The length of a square of Iron-56 one atom thick with a mass equal to the plank mass that has the Iron atoms touching at the ends of their atomic radii. (3.02622667 Micrometers) Called a Trac (based on latin for distance or some such)

Mass: The mass of Iron atoms assembled in the previous method in a cube 1 Trac in diameter (0.937543251 g) Called a Missa (latin for Mass)

Time: The amount of time it would take for an object accelleration due to gravity for two masses of 1 Missa each that are 1 Trac apart (89.3591153 seconds) Called a Tempus (latin for time)

Charge: The Charge of 1 plank mass of Iron atoms if each atom has lost one electron (0.0167717934 coloumb) Called a Vita (based on latin for lightning)

Temperature: Kelvin, but change the definition to 0 = abs. 0, ~957.65 the temperature at which a pure blackbody will emit photons with a peak wavelength of 1 Trac.

Quantity of Matter: Ths amount Carbon 12 atoms needed to have a mass of 12 Missas (5.64601812×10^23) Called a Par (Latin for equal)

Luminous intensity: Not a necessary base unit, removed.

I would suggest calling it ferrum, or chalybs, which mean Iron, which is what the system is based off of.

Those are the ones that can't be changed, on account of the entire world pratically already have agreed on a definition. No redifining the Second, Lilogram, Litre or anything else. Those are based on Distilled water and always will be.

no, its a new system, like metric to imperial. The difference is that there are no arbitrary values. The only thing is that I gave them in terms of metric to give conversion values.

Actually our time system is pretty good. It's our other systems that need changing! Think about it, 10 is a hard number to work with. Divisible by 2 and 5. Half of ten is five, ok. A third of ten is .33333... not fun. A fourth .25 still awkward. A fifth is 2, ok.
12 on the other hand. Divisible by 2,3,4,6. Half is 6. Third is 4. Fourth is 3 and so on. How often do you actually want something divided into fifths?
60 is an even better number, divisible by 2,3,4,5,6,9,10,12,15,20 and 30!
Then there's 360 but you get my point!
Our system of measuring time (24,60,60)and angles (360,60,60)has been around for a lot longer that the metric system. If we were to adopt a base twelve counting system I think (after we got used to it) it would be much easier.
another thing to consider is using a measuring system based on more universal measurement basis. Mass based on say the atomic weight of hydrogen. Temp based on absolute zero (0 degrees) and say the boiling point of water (360 degrees).
I do like the way that the metric system relates all the different measurement types into a consistent package, but !0 is not the best number for division.