Naked Science Forum

Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: thedoc on 23/02/2016 16:21:03

Title: Why is our day in 24 hours?
Post by: thedoc on 23/02/2016 16:21:03

Anthony asked the Naked Scientists:















   Why do we have a 24 hour day cycle, and could we make it metric?















What do you think?

Title: Re: Why is our day in 24 hours?
Post by: evan_au on 10/02/2016 20:54:06

Quote from: Anthony

Why do we have a 24 hour day cycle?

It possibly derived from dividing the day into 12 parts with a sundial.
Sundials don't work at night, but they mirrored the day pattern at night, for a total of 24 hours.

See: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/experts-time-division-days-hours-minutes/

Quote

could we make it metric?

The French tried, after the French Revolution - they even had decimal weeks. It was later repealed.
More recently, a trendy Swiss watch company also attempted it, but it seems to have faded into obscurity.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_time

Title: Re: Why is our day in 24 hours?
Post by: Atomic-S on 12/02/2016 03:59:02

They might metricize the day after they get rid of the QWERTY keyboard, but very likely not sooner.

Title: Re: Why is our day in 24 hours?
Post by: chiralSPO on 12/02/2016 22:37:34

I think we will sooner go from decimal to duodecimal number system.