It is wild how people refuse to use the 24 hour clock. It is so logical and easy. kind of like the metric system……
Clock logic
Submitted 2 weeks ago by ickplant@lemmy.world to [deleted]
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/5fc9030d-6892-4f2a-9eb9-d9e2a280c659.jpeg
Comments
IWW4@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
First thing I change on every electronic device I buy.
spazzman6156@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
And really annoying when something only has 12hr mode
TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I don’t want to believe that time goes on for that long.
I’d rather a 6 hour clock.
AA5B@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
It only solves a small part of the issue at the cost of less convenience and consistency. Propose a “metric” time that solves more of this issue problem and I’m all for it
groet@infosec.pub 2 weeks ago
less convenience and consistency
What? … seriously, which convenience and consistency are you talking about.
24h only has one “inconsistency”, going from 23:59 to 0:00. How is that less consistent than 12am being after 11:59pm and 12pm being after 11:59am. Solves all parts of the issue except for one. Which is a lot better than the 12h system.
DharmaCurious@startrek.website 2 weeks ago
There was a metric clock after the revolution, it didn’t last long, because it was bad. It made the day (as in, the 24 hour day) 10 metric hours long, and contained 100 minutes and 100 seconds. Meaning a metric hour is about 2.24 standard hours. Having only 10 hours in a day meant it was harder to schedule things, and you had to be much more precise. 10 is also just not as divisible as 12 or 60. There’s a reason why base 12 systems have staying power, even when they’re converted into base 10 and feel clunky.
My suggestion for a better metric clock, still keeping the standard base 10 of metric, would be to divide the day into daytime and nighttime hours, and giving each of them 10 so it feels all nice and frenchy. 100 minutes, 100 seconds.
That makes the metric hour about equivalent to 72 standard minutes, and the metric minute about 43 standard seconds
1 metric second would be a little less than half our current second.
The day is nearly divided into two segments, daytime (DT) and nighttime (NT) that parallels the am/pm system. I don’t particularly like this, as I prefer a 24 hour clock in our currently system, but it’s still an improvement on the actual metric clock from the revolution.
Now, if you want an actual improvement, and not just a clock that goes well with your other systems of measure, you’d need to attend on my Ted Talk on why we should transition to base 12 for everything (not go to the American/imperial system, but actual base 12. As in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, X, E, 10). The meter can stay the same physical length, the dozenal kilo would balance a scale with old one, but divide everything in the new system, giving us significantly more ways to divide things evenly, and keeping the nice round “10s.”
Greddan@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
“This doesn’t solve all of the problems instantly so I refuse”
Classic
The_Lurker@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’d prefer base 10 time than base 12. Until then I’ll just keep with am pm
BlueMagma@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
I’d prefer base 12 for everything
Meron35@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
We should all also use GMT and forget about time zones.
the_crotch@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Metric system should be replaced with something base12 thh
Zamboni_Driver@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
24 hour analogue clocks exist. I have a 24 hour watch which only revolves once per 24 hours. It’s a disadvantage though.
The reason why clocks and watches display 12 hours at a time is so that they have space to show finer resolution of time. If you try to cram 24 hours onto a clock, it’s not easy to tell if it’s 12:20 or 12:30 at a quick glance.
Most people are not too stupid to be aware of if they are in the first 12 hours or second 12 hours of a day, so they benefit from a watch with 12 hour timescale and finer resolution so that they can more easily see exactly what time it is.
And for all the dummies posting about 12h vs 24h clocks. In the sense of saying that it’s 1pm vs 13:00. That’s not what this meme is even describing. This is about the physical layout of a clock or watch face.
riot@fedia.io 2 weeks ago
I can't believe this is the first I'm hearing of 24-hour analogue clocks! That's so cool. But yeah, I see your point about it now allowing for very much precision at a glance.
Jankatarch@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
If 12 is better than 24 we should build 6 hour analog clocks already!
CommanderCloon@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
You could get a jumping hour watch, meaning the hour isn’t a slowly moving hand but instead jumps from 6 to 7 with a jump, avoiding potential mixing up of hours, it would make it easier to read those 24h
Like this watch
MisterFrog@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
This is what the minute and second hands are for, though
ragas@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
The numbers on the clock actually make a lot of sense.
12, 24 and 60 are highly composite numbers (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highly_composite_number).
Imagine using numbers in a world where most people have no real understanding of fractions.
That is also the reason why you see the same or similar numbers as common screen refresh rates. 24, 48, 60, 120 and 240.
The 12 hour clockface design is that way because it is a similar design to that of a sundial, so people did not need to learn a new way to read the time. This also meant that for readibility reasons it was beneficial to only have 12 numbers.
__dev@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Surely you mean common refresh rates like 23.976Hz (NTSC), 25hz (PAL & ATSC), 50hz (PAL & ATSC), 59.95hz (NTSC), 100hz (PAL+) and 144hz, right? /s
bstix@feddit.dk 2 weeks ago
Everybody loves composite numbers, but I’m missing the point in which this is advantage in the context of time. The only situation I know of where time needs to be divided is in paid work, and in this case it’s always converted to base 10 money.
exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
The decimalization of money is its own fun history, with a lot of different countries undergoing their own transitions at different times.
The Spanish dollar, which was the world reserve currency in its heyday, was divided into 8 reals (see how pirates used to refer to money in the form of “pieces of eight”) but issues with the supply of silver led to the introduction of the lesser real de vellón, which eventually settled at 20 to the dollar after over 100 years of uncertainty and confusion.
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
Geometry.
The first clocks were sundials, which worked by putting a line on the ground. As soon as you comparing two different lines on the ground, you are doing geometry to represent time.
When you start messing around with geometry, you need an easy way to describe the angle of an equilateral triangle. 1/6th of a circle, or 1/3rd of a line. Trying to represent 1/3 or 1/6th in base 10 is fugly. Trying to divide a circle into 10 equal sections is just as fugly.
Dividing a circle into 6 equal sections is trivial: after you draw the circle with your compass, walk the compass around the perimeter. You have just inscribed a hexagon.
You’re still missing the angle of 1/4 of a circle: the angles of a square. Those are pretty important in geometry as well. It’s fairly trivial to draw another 6 points between the first 6 on your circle.
We use a 12-hour clock because of basic geometry. The 360-degree circle is the bastard child of basic geometry and a base-10 number system.
pipes@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
SaltyIceteaMaker@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
24 hours cause Egyptians split their sun dials and star decans into 12 parts each (probably cause 12 is divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 6) which the greeks later turned into equal length hours (before the length would change over the year)
60 minutes due to Babylonian base-60 math
12 hour format is just tradition at this point, but derived from the sun dials which only worked at day, so half the time, and the star decans which only worked at night, so the other half.
i mean pretty much every country except the US uses the 24h format on digitial clocks now
pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
This all originated from the Ancient Sumerians btw. They passed it down to Babylonians
BallShapedMan@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Came here to say this, you said it far better than I would have! Great addition with the edit.
ethaver@kbin.earth 2 weeks ago
It's called a "highly composite number!" I read up on a lot of this stuff while learning about numerology and other esoteric traditions!
MoonRaven@feddit.nl 2 weeks ago
Let’s just switch to metric time. metric-time.com
sexybenfranklin@ttrpg.network 2 weeks ago
We’re on Metric time already, the base unit of measure for time in the Metric system is the second. This is decimal time.
Patches@ttrpg.network 2 weeks ago
Ugh I can hear it now in corpo speak.
Starting Monday, we’re transitioning to Metric Time: 10 hours in a day, 100 minutes in an hour, 100 seconds in a minute.
But don’t worry — you’re still expected to work 8 metric hours a day.
skepller@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Holy shit, that actually looks so neat and organized, I want it 😭
Jumuta@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
The clock makes so much more sense when you make the 12 a 0
hansolo@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
I never confirmed this, but I noticed that in parts of West Africa, people wouldn’t say “afternoon” until after 1:00pm. Since greetings were important, I started noticing it more and more when peoe would say “good morning” during lunch at 12:30pm. As if the 12 noon hour is still part of the time segment.
s@piefed.world 2 weeks ago
Keep it simple and just measure in terms of seconds since the Big Bang. The current time is 435,884,579,968,052,736 seconds, easy peasy
PlexSheep@infosec.pub 2 weeks ago
Nah just use Unix time
humanspiral@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
technically that is 64 bit unix time.
humorlessrepost@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Most of that time is irrelevant to me. Let’s just start it in 1970. And I need more precision, so can we do milliseconds instead of seconds?
ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
This would go great with my idea of everyone having a GUID instead of a name.
exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Maybe where you’re sitting. But my frame of reference has had slightly different time dilation than yours.
altphoto@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
Alright, I’m calling a 4.1666666666666666666666666666 metric hour meeting to discuss this!
The meeting might run to a full 5 metric hours.
bountygiver@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
there’s 86400 seconds in a day. If we use a new unit that is slightly shorter than a second as a metric second, we can do 100000 metric seconds a day, with 100 metric seconds per metric minutes, and 100 metric minutes per metric hour, and each day having 10 metric hours.
We are only used to the current system because we have been using it.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Thanks Obama
DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
“Hey sweetie, please come home by Hour 89.58333333/100 otherwise I’m gonna have to ground you for a week, love you!”
Tabula_stercore@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Only noobs start counting at 1. Midnight = 24:00 = 00:00
lime@feddit.nu 2 weeks ago
maybe this is because i grew up in a house that had a clock with handn but no numbers, but wth do you mean “the 6 means 30”.
analogue clocks consists of two progress bars. the numbers are just for convenience.
Derpenheim@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
When the minutes hand is over the 6, 30 minutes have passed
jdnewmil@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
whoosh!
Gladaed@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
There is no six. Clock faces have big and little ticks and a 12 maybe.
Armillarian@pawb.social 2 weeks ago
Its possible to create a new time format/ system, the problem is how to standardise it everywhere
TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Babylonians: I see this as a complete win.
betanumerus@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Clocks are based on sundials. The little hand roughly follows where a shadow would be. The rest is just what people agreed on made the most sense.
BenevolentOne@infosec.pub 2 weeks ago
My pet theory is (circa 10000 BCE) that ‘houses’ and ‘hours’ are related words, the 12 hour clock matched the zodiac, each hour/house was 1 Assyrian ‘watch’ and they had no trouble day or night (constellations at night, sundial during the day), they were easy to build, easy to communicate, easy to understand and efficient.
Then the Egyptians stole the technology (Circa 6000BCE) said ‘12 hours in a day? I got you bro’, fucked it up and it all went downhill from there.
Feel free to quote me in your prize winning scientific paper.
portuga@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Haven’t seen this one this week. Thanks
rumba@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
The 6 means 6, 18, AND 30.
hedge_lord@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Oh also the hours will start at 1 and the minutes will start at 0
Whelks_chance@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Isn’t this a standup routine?
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Another classic meme. Love to see it getting a proper repost after all these long weeks.
Admetus@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
I get the joke, but the sundials of ancient civilisations precluded clocks.
over_clox@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Sundials also didn’t work very well at midnight for some reason, what’s ya point?
panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
You’re just not holding the flashlight properly.
If you hold the flashlight right they work 100% of the time.
Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
That’s why for a long time, and even longer in the Royal Navy, the new day started at noon and not midnight.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Noon is the center of the dial. Midnight is just the opposite of noon.
naught@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
“Precluded” means “prevented” or to “make impossible” ❤️
Admetus@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
Oh hot damn, first time I used that word.
Maybe presaged?
A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
It’s all the Babylonians fault
sundray@lemmus.org 2 weeks ago
Those fuckers could count to 60 on their fingers. Witchcraft!
hakase@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
exothermic@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Well… This post sent me down a rabbit hole -> Unequal Hours if anyone else is curious.