“The Babylonians came up with the sixty seconds in a minute,sixty minutes in an hour, and seven days to the week. I’ll stick with that system, which is over six thousands years old. They even kept their thoughts written down.”
Seconds, minutes, and hours are arbitrary (although consistent internally), but they’re what we’re used to and (as far as I know) universally accepted at this point, so I’m sticking with them too. Weeks are less arbitrary (they’re tied to the phases of the moon, although of course the “phases” are a continuum and not nicely quartered). Days (the period of the Earth rotating on its axis) and years (the period of the Earth orbiting the Sun) are objectively determinable, and the number of terrestrial days in a terrestrial year (I’d call it a “solar year”, but different planets have different “years”) is calculable. The result unfortunately is neither a whole number (365.25 and change) nor one that is conveniently divisible into uniform weeks and/or months, and the Mayas got closer to it than the Babylonians or the Julians. Just in terms of working out the math with limited observational equipment, it’s still pretty impressive.
If we could slow down the Earth’s rotation just a tick (which would probably be easier than speeding its orbit of the Sun, with fewer consequences in terms of climactic catastrophe), we could have a year that’s precisely 364 days long, split into 13 months of 28 days/4 weeks, and if we recalibrated our hours, minutes, and seconds accordingly we’d never notice it. Let’s get Superman to work on it right away, to kick in on January 1.
PS: I’d suggest experimenting with the moon first, to see if we can at least get get it to rotate (it’d be NICE to see the other side of the moon once in a while), but once we got days and years where we want them we’d just have to recalibrate the moon again anyway.
Ottodesu over 11 years ago
Damn! I wish I’d thought of this.
frodo1008 over 11 years ago
Help! Help! We are all going to die! We are all going to die!
Ha! Ha! and Ha!!
And when we all wake up tomorrow, then what……
Simon_Jester over 11 years ago
An’ then they’ll give yer money to the Latinos what is ALL illegal immygrants an’ th’ blacks whut is ALL on welfare, right Sparky?
( Ima actually said that, a few weeks ago. )
Simon_Jester over 11 years ago
The Mayan Apocalypse and the RaptureSame productDifferent packaging
chazandru over 11 years ago
Great cartoon. I hope Mr. Handelsman has a good day off.C.
I Play One On TV over 11 years ago
Every one of you people generalize so much. Why does everyone always generalize? And haven’t I told you a million times not to exaggerate?
rockngolfer over 11 years ago
The Druids had a great day at Stonehenge.Wonder if the UFO landed in Bugarach, France and took away the faithful?
pam Miner over 11 years ago
Stonehenge, yesterday or today? I just looked and I see I’m still here.
Nebulous Premium Member over 11 years ago
Remember, the 21st isn’t over yet.
frodo1008 over 11 years ago
So, most of the people of the US do not work?
fritzoid Premium Member over 11 years ago
“The Babylonians came up with the sixty seconds in a minute,sixty minutes in an hour, and seven days to the week. I’ll stick with that system, which is over six thousands years old. They even kept their thoughts written down.”
Seconds, minutes, and hours are arbitrary (although consistent internally), but they’re what we’re used to and (as far as I know) universally accepted at this point, so I’m sticking with them too. Weeks are less arbitrary (they’re tied to the phases of the moon, although of course the “phases” are a continuum and not nicely quartered). Days (the period of the Earth rotating on its axis) and years (the period of the Earth orbiting the Sun) are objectively determinable, and the number of terrestrial days in a terrestrial year (I’d call it a “solar year”, but different planets have different “years”) is calculable. The result unfortunately is neither a whole number (365.25 and change) nor one that is conveniently divisible into uniform weeks and/or months, and the Mayas got closer to it than the Babylonians or the Julians. Just in terms of working out the math with limited observational equipment, it’s still pretty impressive.
If we could slow down the Earth’s rotation just a tick (which would probably be easier than speeding its orbit of the Sun, with fewer consequences in terms of climactic catastrophe), we could have a year that’s precisely 364 days long, split into 13 months of 28 days/4 weeks, and if we recalibrated our hours, minutes, and seconds accordingly we’d never notice it. Let’s get Superman to work on it right away, to kick in on January 1.
fritzoid Premium Member over 11 years ago
PS: I’d suggest experimenting with the moon first, to see if we can at least get get it to rotate (it’d be NICE to see the other side of the moon once in a while), but once we got days and years where we want them we’d just have to recalibrate the moon again anyway.
lonecat over 11 years ago
The best part is the metric year. That works really well.
fritzoid Premium Member over 11 years ago
“Canada got rid of that silly 6 inches to a foot …”
You did well to get rid of that one. Just because you tell the LADIES “It’s a foot long” doesn’t make it so. :-)