Calendar reform. (was Counting years)
Dan Tilque
> The only really elegant solution to the problem would be to
> move the earth slightly closer to the sun, so that the year
> is exactly 364 days long. Of course you could get the same
> effect by slowing down the Earth's rotation slightly, but
> that would mess up all the clocks. |->
A truly elegent solution to calendar reform could be done in three simple(?)
steps:
1) Change the definition of the second to be 2 of the current
seconds (this is the easy part).
2) Change the rotation of the Earth to be 65536 of the new seconds.
3) Move the Earth (away from the sun) so that there are exactly
256 of the new days in the year. Note that this step is
unneccesary if the constant in step 1 is changed from 2 to
approximately 1.881.
The year would then be made up of 8 months of 32 days. Each month
would have 4 weeks of 8 days each. People would work 6 days and
get 2 off (a longer work week is a small price to pay for a truly
rational calendar). Work days would only be 5 new hours long (about
1/3 day) anyway. You would also get 12 days of vacation every year.
The day would be made up of 16 hours each of which would have
64 minutes. Each minute would have 64 seconds.
The advantages to this system are obvious: computers would only need
3 bytes of memory to keep track of the current date and time.
(All days, hours and minutes would be counted from zero, of course.)
The savings of computer memory and date conversion routines would be
tremendous.
The disadvantages of this are minor. After all, we change our
calendars every year anyway; everyone would just have to get
a new watch at the same time.
Dan Tilque UUCP: tektronix!dadla!dant
CSnet: dant%dadla@tektronix
ARPAnet: dant%dadla%tektronix@csnet-relay
Mass extinction; it's not just for dinosaurs anymore.
Disclaimer: I didn't put any smileys in the above. (I have a nickel that
says that someone will take it seriously).
K.Singhal - Systems Design
>From: jo...@peora.UUCP (Joel Upchurch)
>> The only really elegant solution to the problem would be to
>> move the earth slightly closer to the sun, so that the year
>> is exactly 364 days long. Of course you could get the same
>> effect by slowing down the Earth's rotation slightly, but
>> that would mess up all the clocks. |->
>
>
>A truly elegent solution to calendar reform could be done in three simple(?)
>steps:
>
> 1) Change the definition of the second to be 2 of the current
> seconds (this is the easy part).
>
> 2) Change the rotation of the Earth to be 65536 of the new seconds.
>
> 3) Move the Earth (away from the sun) so that there are exactly
> 256 of the new days in the year. Note that this step is
> unneccesary if the constant in step 1 is changed from 2 to
> approximately 1.881.
>
.
.
.
> The advantages to this system are obvious: computers would only need
> 3 bytes of memory to keep track of the current date and time.
> (All days, hours and minutes would be counted from zero, of course.)
> The savings of computer memory and date conversion routines would be
> tremendous.
>
> The disadvantages of this are minor. After all, we change our
> calendars every year anyway; everyone would just have to get
> a new watch at the same time.
>
>
> Dan Tilque UUCP: tektronix!dadla!dant
> CSnet: dant%dadla@tektronix
> ARPAnet: dant%dadla%tektronix@csnet-relay
>
Hey, I like this one. Now if only we could change our genes so that we have
only one finger and a thumb on each hand and only two toes on each foot.
Then it would be natural for us humans to count in binary too ! :-)
--
=============================================================================
| Sherman Lang | |
| Systems Design Engineering | "A screaming comes across the sky..." |
| University of Waterloo | |
=============================================================================
Brian Godfrey
> The year would then be made up of 8 months of 32 days. Each month
> would have 4 weeks of 8 days each. People would work 6 days and
> get 2 off (a longer work week is a small price to pay for a truly
Dan must be in management. My natural adaptation to an eight day week
would be to work five days and have three days off for the weekend. :-)
--Brian
land...@sun.uucp
> In article <7...@tekla.UUCP> da...@tekla.UUCP (Dan Tilque) writes:
> >A truly elegent solution to calendar reform could be done in three simple(?)
> >steps:
> > 1) Change the definition of the second to be 2 of the current
> > seconds (this is the easy part).
> > 2) Change the rotation of the Earth to be 65536 of the new seconds.
> > 3) Move the Earth (away from the sun) so that there are exactly
> > 256 of the new days in the year. Note that this step is
> > unneccesary if the constant in step 1 is changed from 2 to
> > approximately 1.881.
> > ...
>
> Hey, I like this one. Now if only we could change our genes so that we have
> only one finger and a thumb on each hand and only two toes on each foot.
> Then it would be natural for us humans to count in binary too ! :-)
It's already pretty easy to do that: use one thumb (being
right-handed, I usually use the right thumb) as the 0 bit,
the index finger as the 1's bit, and so on; the left thumb
is the 32-bit. This way it's easy to count all the way up
to 1023 on your fingers. (Thanks go to Steve Crocker, who
showed me how to do this, seventeen years ago.)
Now back to the real subject (redesigning the calendar):
My favorite proposal (I don't remember whether I made it
up or read it somewhere) is twelve months of thirty days
each, with a six-day week. Obviously, Monday is the day
to get rid of. The shorter week means we'll have 8.333%
more weekend days per year, so it will help some to ease
the unemployment problem. The extra five days (six days
in leapyears) would be considered to be a week without a
Saturday; that week is not a part of any month. Are you
aware of how little gets done anywhere in the US between
Christmas and New Year's Day? The most logical thing to
do would be to combine these two holidays into a single,
week-long holiday (call it NewYear). Just imagine, work
weeks only being four days long! Here is a calendar for
any month of any year under this scheme:
January through December, any year
Sunday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
------ ------- --------- -------- ------ --------
1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30
NewYear, leap years:
Sunday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
------ ------- --------- -------- ------ --------
1 2 3 4 5 6
NewYear, normal years:
Sunday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
------ ------- --------- -------- ------
1 2 3 4 5
No, I don't always right-justify my writing; the words I
thought of just happened to come out justified for three
lines, so how could I avoid noticing that, and how could
I just break a pattern like that after I got it started?
--
Doug Landauer Sun's Net: landauer@morocco
Phone: 415 691-7655 Arpa/DDN: land...@sun.com
UUCP: {amdahl, decwrl, hplabs, seismo ...}!sun!landauer
The man who will not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.
-- Mark Twain
mce...@uiucdcsb.cs.uiuc.edu
>>A truly elegent solution to calendar reform could be done in three simple(?)
>>steps: ...
>> The year would then be made up of 8 months of 32 days. Each month
>> would have 4 weeks of 8 days each. People would work 6 days and
>> get 2 off (a longer work week is a small price to pay for a truly
>
> Dan must be in management. My natural adaptation to an eight day week
>would be to work five days and have three days off for the weekend. :-)
With the emphasis on powers of 2, wouldn't 4 work days and 4 day weekend
make more sense?
Scott McEwan
{ihnp4,pur-ee}!uiucdcs!mcewan
"Guy's brain-damaged, but he's not stupid."
Dan Tilque
> In article <7...@tekla.UUCP> da...@tekla.UUCP (Dan Tilque) writes:
> >A truly elegent solution to calendar reform could be done in three simple(?)
> >steps: ...
> > The year would then be made up of 8 months of 32 days. Each month
> > would have 4 weeks of 8 days each. People would work 6 days and
>
> Dan must be in management. My natural adaptation to an eight day week
> would be to work five days and have three days off for the weekend. :-)
>
> --Brian
Actually, I threw in the 6/2 work/non-work days without really thinking
about it. The true binary chauvinist would work 4 days then get off
4 days (or perhaps work every other day). However, s/he would also
work 8 hours and get 8 off on those days that were worked. Lazy people
(which you appear to be :-) can work 4 hours and take 12 off.
Dan Tilque UUCP: tektronix!dadla!dant
CSnet: dant%dadla@tektronix
ARPAnet: dant%dadla%tektronix@csnet-relay
When in doubt, take it to the extreme.
Kchula-Rrit
> ...
>
> (about using a six-day week with no Monday[yay!])
>
> Just imagine, work
> weeks only being four days long! Here is a calendar for
> any month of any year under this scheme:
>
> January through December, any year
>
> Sunday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
> ------ ------- --------- -------- ------ --------
> 1 2 3 4 5 6
> 7 8 9 10 11 12
> 13 14 15 16 17 18
> 19 20 21 22 23 24
> 25 26 27 28 29 30
>
> NewYear, leap years:
>
> Sunday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
> ------ ------- --------- -------- ------ --------
> 1 2 3 4 5 6
>
>
> NewYear, normal years:
>
> Sunday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
> ------ ------- --------- -------- ------
> 1 2 3 4 5
>
> --
> Doug Landauer
>
That sounds like a six-day calendar I figured out a number of years ago.
Mine must have had mistakes in it, because every four years I would drop
a day(in February, of course), but no changes other than five-week months.
I never did check this closely, just a back-of-the-envelope puzzle.
BTW, I have had a calendar(like the one that comes out of the VAX 'cal'
command) hanging on the wall by my desk. It has six-day weeks and no Day-13
for those who are superstitious about that day. I put it up without saying
anything, and it was a number of months before anyone noticed it.
I had a quite difficult time keeping from laughing when the guy next to
me tried making an appointment by my calendar.
Kchula-Rrit
Amos Shapir
week; years may be of 6 possible lengths, some even have 13 months!
(program available)
--
Amos Shapir
National Semiconductor (Israel)
6 Maskit st. P.O.B. 3007, Herzlia 46104, Israel
(01-972) 52-522261
34.49'E 32.10'N