Could a decimal time and calendar system have been achievable?

[PTR 444]

Further to the discussion on time zones and changing the clocks, I’ve always wondered why we have never properly attempted to decimalise time unlike most other things during the industrial revolution. Doing it now would probably be totally unworkable due to business practice and culture that has built up around the 24 hour clock, but I’m wondering if it could have worked in the past before the adoption of the Standard time zones as we know them today.

I spent quite a bit of time working this out a few months ago, but I figured out that you could split a solar day and night cycle into 20 decimal hours if you apply the following principle:

1 minute = 100 seconds
1 hour = 100 minutes
1 day = 20 hours
1 week = 9 days
1 month = 4 weeks
1 year = 10 months

• 1 decimal minute (100 decimal seconds) would be equivalent to 43.2 seconds in current time
• 10 decimal minutes (1000 decimal seconds) would be equivalent to 7 minutes 12 seconds (432 seconds) in current time
• 1 decimal hour would be equivalent to 1 hour 12 minutes in current time
• 10 decimal hours would be equivalent to 12 hours in current time
• A decimal day is made up of 20 decimal hours - 10 for am and 10 for pm

To make this easier to understand, I have also managed to create a conversion chart showing what each part of the solar day/night would be in both current and decimal time, as shown in the screenshots below:

 

[dangie]

……I spent quite a bit of time working this out a few months ago……

Couldn’t you have just gone down the pub instead…….

 

[pdeaves]

Your 'year' would be 360 days long so it wouldn't take long to get out of kilter with the seasons.
Your week is 9 days (which does away with being 'decimal'!). If I remember correctly, there is some research somewhere that shows productivity for something other than a seven day week drops off dramatically. Seven days is 'just right' for the human race as a whole.

 

[gordonthemoron]

France tried this following the revolution, it didn’t work

 

[PTR 444]

Your 'year' would be 360 days long so it wouldn't take long to get out of kilter with the seasons.
Your week is 9 days (which does away with being 'decimal'!). If I remember correctly, there is some research somewhere that shows productivity for something other than a seven day week drops off dramatically. Seven days is 'just right' for the human race as a whole.

But you could alter the number of decimal days that would form part of the working week. For example days 1-3 and 6-8 would be working days while days 4, 5 & 9 would be rest days. You’d basically have two weekends within a “week”

 

[gswindale]

On the 360 day long year, what's the problem? You just have 5 (or 6) days that don't count as part of the months at the end of the year, and then start again - you could have a special holiday called "New Year" to cover it (think about it - most commercial workplaces close between Christmas & New Year anyway and in the UK, 3 of those days are already bank holidays).

 

[kristiang85]

I personally prefer Dave Gorman's rejigging of the calendar:

 

[Welly]

France tried this following the revolution, it didn’t work

Years ago, I had to use a French made software for work and had to enter time taken for tasks in centi-hours!!! ie 15 minutes as 0.25 hours. Vive la Revolution!

 

[Sm5]

Try convincing an employer to reduce your 8 hours down to 6 hours 66 minutes and 6 seconds per day.

i’m sure they would be happy with a 7 day working week, or does that mean a weekend would become 2 days 8 hours, 5 minutes and 7 seconds long ?

 

[skyhigh]

I’ve always wondered why we have never properly attempted to decimalise time

Reading the rest of your post makes it pretty obvious, I think!

 

[swt_passenger]

No one seems to have mentioned the vast number of scientific units and constants that are based around time in seconds. Changing the basis of time measurements affects far more than the calendar…

 

[Basil Jet]

A friend of a friend came up with a new calendar system and was convinced that it was the future. I asked my friend if I thought he'd succeed.

My friend said "The last two people to change the calendar system were a Roman emperor and a Pope. Marco's a plumber."

 

[pdq]

I guess that the fact that there are 28 days per lunar cycle - which will have been the most obvious way of counting days - pretty much condemned any thought of having 10s as a basis for the earliest 'calendar'. Once a central, natural facet of the system doesn't work in a decimal format, there's not a lot of point in trying to shoehorn it in for the rest of it.

 

[Railsigns]

Years ago, I had to use a French made software for work and had to enter time taken for tasks in centi-hours!!! ie 15 minutes as 0.25 hours. Vive la Revolution!

I record my hours at work each week using that time format.

 

[Ediswan]

I guess that the fact that there are 28 days per lunar cycle - which will have been the most obvious way of counting days - pretty much condemned any thought of having 10s as a basis for the earliest 'calendar'. Once a central, natural facet of the system doesn't work in a decimal format, there's not a lot of point in trying to shoehorn it in for the rest of it.

29.5, roughly. Lunar calendars are still used. Neither lunar cycles nor solar days fit the solar year exactly. Most calendars, but not all, use some kind of fiddle-factor to keep dates aligned with the solar year.

No one seems to have mentioned the vast number of scientific units and constants that are based around time in seconds. Changing the basis of time measurements affects far more than the calendar…

You can add computers, which keep time in sub-multiples of seconds.

 

[Bald Rick]

Surely the OP could have waited until Saturday to post this.

It was the subject of an April fool back in the 80s!

 

[pdq]

29.5, roughly.

Well I never realised that. To be fair, I've never questioned my assumption, though I did think when posting that maybe I should check - then didn't bother! Must go away and learn a bit more about it.

 

[Dent]

1 minute = 100 seconds
1 hour = 100 minutes
1 day = 20 hours
1 week = 9 days
1 month = 4 weeks
1 year = 10 months

If the aim is to decimalise (ie. base 10) time surely base 20, base 9 and base 4 don't belong in such a system.

 

[swt_passenger]

29.5, roughly. Lunar calendars are still used. Neither lunar cycles nor solar days fit the solar year exactly. Most calendars, but not all, use some kind of fiddle-factor to keep dates aligned with the solar year.


You can add computers, which keep time in sub-multiples of seconds.

Also Radar, Radio, GPS, other older radio navigation aids. All depend on accurate time.