Why can't the time be metric?

kapsee · #1 (**permalink**) 08-16-2006, 02:44 AM

Every measurement has gone Metric ... Pounds and Sears to Kilograms; Miles to Kilometers; Feet, yards and Inches to Meters and Centimeters; Ton (2240 pounds) to Metric Ton (1000Kilograms); millisecond, microsecond, nanosecond and picoseconds are all metric subdivisions of a second etc. Then why the clock hour hand remains 1 to 12, and 60 minutes to an hour and 60 Seconds to a minute!!! Why no effort is being made to make 1 to 10 hour marks on the clock instead of 1 to 12 (20 hours in a day or even 10 so there is no AM/PM confusion) ...100 minutes to an hour and 100 seconds to a minutes. This change too can simplify a lot of things in everyday life. Any Clues??

hr1s7o · #2 (**permalink**) 11-11-2006, 06:59 PM

And why doing so if I may ask? I don't think it will simplify things. This is the way it was for an awful long time. Why change it now? I think more people think like me since it is not already changed. And I as said above I think it will only confuse people. The very thought of it confuses me :)

kapsee · #3 (**permalink**) 11-12-2006, 01:20 AM

A major change always confuses people. It takes time to get used to an idea, and then, when you start using the new approach you discover how you did without it for so long. This happened when our system changed from pounds to kilograms, from miles to kilometers and currency too. But we know the benefits now and would never want to go back to the old system.

kowiamay · #4 (**permalink**) 11-12-2006, 02:10 AM

You know, the big difference between the way we measure time and the way we measure everything else is that it's not completely arbitrary. A day is divided into 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night (when they are perfectly balanced at the equinox) to reflect that there are 12 cycles of the moon per year. This is a different thing than the way a foot was based on the length of a king's actual foot. There is an internal coherence to the measurement of a day, which nearly every culture has recognized.

kapsee · #5 (**permalink**) 11-12-2006, 03:57 PM

Let there be 10 hour day and 10 hour night (instead of 12 each) 100 minutes to an hour and 100 seconds to a minute .... These will not interfere with 12 moon cycles per year. See how greatly this will simplify all time calculations.

hr1s7o · #6 (**permalink**) 11-14-2006, 01:30 AM

No it will make thing much more complicated. Do you think, kapsee, that you are the first one that came out with this idea? No you are not because others thought of it and since time is not metric it was obviously rejected. And again I don't see the point in time being metric...

scorcinhot · #7 (**permalink**) 11-14-2006, 06:26 AM

lol
what a theory, does it really work that way if we divide time into 10 hours?