memes

At least our hours are the same length regardless of latitude now, so let's be grateful for that.

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IIRC they counted the bones in their fingers using their thumb and that gives 12. The first sundial was around the equator and there is always light for half a day, so half a day becomes 12 hours.

To count large numbers often one hand was used to count using 5 fingers and the other to count the bones, so you get 5x12 for 60 minutes.

If the day started at 1:00 then by the second hour you would be at 2:00, even though only 1 hour has passed. Effectively the day starts at 0. In fact in 24-hour time that is how it's depicted, 00:00 with midday being depicted as 12:00, so it isn't confusing

I only recently learned the etymology of the word: "second"

Its name comes from being the "second" division of the hour, with the minute being the first.

Days start at 0h, not 12h

It can't start at 12 hours if there are 24 segments.

And keep your letters out of it too.

We have Babylon to thank for this

Clocks should use 24h format. AM/PM is completely useless.

Somebody never had a clock with roman numerals and it shows

I remember getting into an argument with a grade school teacher over IIII because most such clocks put that for 4 instead of IV because of some fuckin reason

Sundials.

Now if you want to get really pissed, the magnetic North Pole is actually the South Pole of the Earth’s magnetic field. We call it the North Pole because the north side of a magnet points to it.

Somebody gave me this clock…I just need the time.

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It's the same logic that was used by ancient astronomers to arrive at 360 degrees for a full revolution.

The math is easier if you have to do it by hand.

The 6 means 30, both of which also mean 1/2

When I become dictator of the world, this will be the new time unit: https://metric-time.com/

The year will also have 13 months: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Fixed_Calendar

The year will be 12025: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_calendar

Because these things just make more sense. You will thank me after a few generations, because habits are hard to change.

If you want to be mad about time then I'd like to introduce you to a little thing I like to call the Gregorian calendar.

sub.wetshaving.social?

What is this?

Hour hand -> hour = n
Minute hand -> minute = n * 5
It makes sense, there's just an algorithm attached to each pointer.

Hour -> 3 = 3
Minute -> 3 = 3 * 5 = 15

Gift from ancient Mesopotamia. Mesopotamians love 12 & base 60. They also liked 7. Those numbers recur in their mythology.

Americans have a weird fixation with 💯. Where Americans might use percentages, I've seen Japanese plot values in [0, 1] (ie, pure proportions).

Well it’s because noon means nine because the day starts at six o’ clock, so three is noon, but we use it to mean twelve which is closer to midday, obviously

In Ethiopia they still use the tradition time where the day starts at the 1:00 which is our 6am. Then 12:00 is our 6PM, and it starts over. So they have 2 cycles of 12 hours, one for daytime, and one for night time. And it felt somewhat more intuitively in conversation too.

I say we divide the day into 100 sections. No reason really I just think it’d be cool to party until 100 o’clock.