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- Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
- Path: sparky!uunet!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ames!kronos.arc.nasa.gov!jabberwock!kanef
- From: Kanef@Charon.ARC.NASA.gov (Bob Kanefsky)
- Subject: Re: What's the date on the moon? really.
- Message-ID: <1992Aug22.043401.923@kronos.arc.nasa.gov>
- Sender: kanef@jabberwock (Bob Kanefsky)
- Nntp-Posting-Host: jabberwock.arc.nasa.gov
- Organization: Sterling Software, NASA/ARC Division
- References: <BsFwn1.8Ln@zoo.toronto.edu> <1992Aug12.112550.16773@pbs.org> <6533@tekig7.PEN.TEK.COM> <1007@vk2bea.UUCP> <1992Aug19.115844.16821@pbs.org> <BtD4A9.6CE@news.cso.uiuc.edu>
- Date: Sat, 22 Aug 1992 04:34:01 GMT
- Lines: 32
-
- In article <BtD4A9.6CE@news.cso.uiuc.edu>, jbh55289@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu
- (Josh 'K' Hopkins) writes:
- |> I believe universal time is the standard for such things, and when very
- |> accurate and precise measurements of duration are required there are more
- |> complex ways of measuring time that are far to complicated for most of us to
- |> bother with. Since "local time" and time zones will be pretty pointless on the
- |> Moon, my guess is that visitors and inhabitants will be using Earth calanders
- |> and universal time for a while yet.
-
- I read an article many years ago, in the _L5_News_ I think, which suggested
- that people living in space may decide to do away with the traditional
- hard-to-multiply time units -- since the concept of a day will be meaningless
- and the concept of a year almost useless -- and go to a metric timekeeping
- system. For example, a meeting might be scheduled to last four kiloseconds.
- After all, the second is already the only time unit used in formal
- scientific reporting.
-
- Personally, I don't think that will happen as long as colonies in orbit or
- on the Moon are constantly trading information with Earth. (Maybe on Mars;
- if you're not in the same time frame as the person you're talking to, there's
- not much point in agreeing on a time zone convention.) The former American
- colonies that became the United States considered adopting the metric system
- but decided against it for compatibility with Great Britain, their major
- trading partner. Besides, I think that article underestimated civiliation's
- inertia. While there's no getting around the fact that there are not a round
- number of days in a month or a year, there's no excuse for there being
- sixty seconds in a minute, sixty minutes in an hour, and twenty-four hours
- in a day. We're still using the favorite magic numbers of ancient Sumer,
- a 5000-year-old habit.
-
- Bob Kanefsky
- (Opinions are my own, of course.)
-