Calendar reform

[fredintoon]

Special Ed's mention of the Mayan calendar prompts this new topic as it has nothing to do with the "wrong forum" string so here goes.
13 months of 28 days each. We need a name for the 13th month, or buggrit, re-name them all, the current month names only reflect Roman politics after all. Have a competition with prizes for the winning names. Thus the new year always starts on a Sunday, payday is always on a Friday, birthdays and other anniversaries are always on the same day of the week and the only reason to buy a new calendar is to get new pictures and clean spaces to write your personal stuff in. But, I hear you whining, that's only 364 days and there's 365 and not quite a quarter days in a year. Right!
The one and not quite a quarter days left over will be called "Newyears" and will be defined as the time between when the old calendar year stops and the new one starts. The New Year will start when the scientists Caesium Decay clocks or the Druids astronomical computer at Stonehenge say it's the exact right time for it to do so.

[egsols]

But, I hear you whining, that's only 364 days and there's 365 and not quite a quarter days in a year. Right!

Why not change the length of a day to make it even throughout? Who says we need exactly 24 hours to make up one day.

[fredintoon]

Why not change the length of a day to make it even throughout? Who says we need exactly 24 hours to make up one day.

Hi Ernie,
a day is defined as one complete planetary revolution and is therefore a constant. That the day is divided 24, 60, 60 into hours, minutes and seconds goes back to the Sumarians who had the brains to use a duodecimal counting system and who's astronomical records are still in use. To revise timekeeping into a decimal format is an entirely different thing than calendar reform so start your own effin' topic.

[egsols]

Yes I know a day is defined by the revolution of the earth and I am also aware that the earth takes roughly 365.25 days to complete its orbit, i.e. one year give or take and as such every four years we have to compensate for the extra 24 hours and have shoved that day at the end of February. I wasn't alluding to a timekeeping change just a proportional lengthening of a standard day to 24 hours and 57 seconds (more or less)

As everyone seems to be messing with daylight savings time, with exceptions (you know who I mean)... I figured what does it matter if you spread, the not quite, 6 hours out over the whole year to make a calender work. It's not like sunrise or sunset (or more specifically when we first and last see the sun, at our stationary observation point) occur at the same time each day.

But alas, that theory would really mess things up as time goes on, so I'll shut up now before my toes find the back of my throat.

[latexeses]

I would like to propose that we place the new month between March and April. April is such a nice sounding month.
I propose we name the new month after a month named by sitcom hero Al Bundy...Helluary... and leave it for tax month. Income tax day is a lousy thing to have in April.

Rodger

[The Lorax]

I have an idea, while you're figuring out how to make the calender symmetrical, do me a small favor and figure out what the energy contained it a single photon is, then plug it into Einstein's goof-ball equation and figure out what the mass of light is. ( I watch a lot of documentaries and have actually been giving this some small amount of thought...the mass of light thing, not the calender) I figure since you are going to be altering time and space as we know it, you might be able to help me out with my dilemna. I know what the "physics nerds will say, "light has no mass" but it is affected by gravity and actually only moves at 300,000,000 m/s in a vacuum. I figure that light having some unimaginably small amount of mass makes more sense than some bogus "dark matter" crap that someone came up with to make their math work on the mass of the universe. I saw another doc. on this subject last night and so it's fresh in my head and I am currently obsessing about it, I'll move on to something else as soon as something shiny flies by. have a nice day and ride safe

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Fred, what a can of worms!?

Okay, I was pondering over this a bit!?

I think I know that Sept, Oct, Nov, Dec. were actually named for their # position at one time, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, but Dec. is actually the 12th month.

I think I know Aug and July were for the roman emporers, Augustus and Julius Cesar?

I haven't looked up the others origins, but I would guess you could tell us!?

But aside from the 13th month, this would also throw off the ASTROLOGERS and their calculations, predictions, not to mention we'd need another Zodiac "SIGN" for that month.

I vote for the name REMember, like DECember, NOVember, that way it would be easy to "remember" what it's name is!? Is there a constellation that looks like a QUESTION MARK?
T.C.

PS, due to the moon(how we got the name for a MONTH) is slowly drifting farther away from earth, causing the earth to actually slow down it's rotational speed, the length of a day will actually be longer than 24 hours in the future!

[The Lorax]

Hey T.C. not to throw a wrench in the calculatory works of that big brain of yours but if the Earth's rotation slows down, wouldn't that make a day longer that 24 hours, or was it a typo or something? you don't strike me as a man who makes many mistakes, so I felt compelled to ask. no real reason, just a bit of nonsense. have a nice day and ride safe

Duly noted, and editted, thanks, must be the meds after my tooth extraction and resultant dry socket! T.C.

[Poprock]

As a fairly frequent reader of XS11.com it seems that the off season has hit a lot earlier and with more severity than I can remember. Not that this isn't an interesting thread, but are we hard up for a good time or what? Maybe the art of caring for and riding an XS11 just sharpens the mind enough that our members are able to ponder such far-reaching issues and offer creative solutions to some of the nagging problems of humankind. I think that's what I want to believe.

[The Lorax]

Well, I don't know what anyone else's excuse is, but I have ADD and insomnia, so I'm always coming up with some kind of cosmic concept. sometimes it's just better to let the inrush of misc. thoughts run their course, does anyone know how they came up with the whole knots thing to measure wind speed and how fast one is going in a boat? oops, sorry, I'll try to stay on task better

[ELDR]

Gentlemen and others

Just to confuse

The earth actually takes only 23 hrs and 56 minutes to complete one revolution. This is known as a sidereal day. However, it is 24 hours for the sun to appear in the same position in the sky.

[oseaghdha]

Starology and Fiziks

Gentlemen and others

Just to confuse

The earth actually takes only 23 hrs and 56 minutes to complete one revolution. This is known as a sidereal day. However, it is 24 hours for the sun to appear in the same position in the sky.

Relative to the stars due to the revolution about the sun. In other words, the Earth has moved almost 1 degree in its orbit every day. That changes the apparent position relative to the stars.

It's star time vs earth time.

[tarzan]

I dont know if it is true but someone once told me that knots were derived from actual knots on a rope.It was the easiest way to know how far they had gone in a given amount of time.I dont know how long the rope was suppose to be ,but I guess it wouldnt have to be too long just to come up with an estimate.

[fredintoon]

Okay, I was pondering over this a bit!?

I think I know that Sept, Oct, Nov, Dec. were actually named for their # position at one time, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, but Dec. is actually the 12th month.

I think I know Aug and July were for the roman emporers, Augustus and Julius Cesar?

I haven't looked up the others origins, but I would guess you could tell us!?

But aside from the 13th month, this would also throw off the ASTROLOGERS and their calculations, predictions, not to mention we'd need another Zodiac "SIGN" for that month.

I vote for the name REMember, like DECember, NOVember, that way it would be easy to "remember" what it's name is!? Is there a constellation that looks like a QUESTION MARK?
T.C.

PS, due to the moon(how we got the name for a MONTH) is slowly drifting farther away from earth, causing the earth to actually slow down it's rotational speed, the length of a day will actually be longer than 24 hours in the future!

Hi TC,
I'm sure you could Google "month names" yourself eh? But out of the respect and admiration I have for you I have made the effort on your behalf.
http://gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/roman/months.htm
It seems that the zodiac is ~3 months off anyway because of good ol' Julius' calendar reform.
You won't have to remember the new month name because it will be written in the new calendar.
Yes, the big dipper aka the drinkin' gourd aka the plough aka Ursa major.
I do not think that the world's rotational slowdown will bother us in our lifetimes.

[wa407mpp]

In the Pacific Northwest we already have an extra month, it's called Junuary and it falls between Memorial Day and Labor Day.