For time less than a second the standard SI prefixes are used:
10^-1 seconds: decisecond
10^-2 seconds: centisecond
10^-3 seconds: millisecond
10^-6 seconds: microsecond
10^-9 seconds: nanosecond
10^-12 seconds: picosecond
10^-15 seconds: femtosecond
10^-18 seconds: attosecond
10^-21 seconds: zeptosecond
10^-24 seconds: yoctosecond
In the context of introducing a metric system in France for weights and measures, the French Republican salendar DID decimalise time, on the following lines:
(a) 100 seconds in a minute
(b) 100 minutes in an hour
(c) 10 hours in a day
(d) 10 days in a week
(e) 3 10-day weeks in a month
(f) 12 30-day months in a year
5 or 6 extra days were added on at the end of the year, which is what the Babylonians did, given their sexagesimal (base-60) counting system leading to them defining 360 degrees in a circle and 360 days a year.
Introduced in late 1793 (4 years after the French Revolution) it did not catch on, Clocks were made according to the new principles, but were quickly abandoned. It was officially wound up by decree of Napoleon as of 1st January 1806, after just over 12 years of operation. It briefly re-emerged in the short-lived Paris Commune of 1871,
The year ran from one autumnal equinox to the next. The calendar was adopted by the Jacobin-controlled National Convention on 24 October 1793.
Years appear in writing as Roman numerals (usually), counted from the beginning of the 'Republican Era', 22 September 1792 (the day the French First Republic was proclaimed, one day after the Convention abolished the monarchy). As a result, Roman Numeral I indicates the first year of the republic.
The names of the months were altered. The months were named after nature, with different word endings reflecting which season they were in: a system invented by Fabre d'Églantine.
Autumn:
Vendémiaire (from Latin vindemia, "vintage") Starting Sept 22, 23 or 24
Brumaire (from French brume, "mist") Starting Oct 22, 23 or 24
Frimaire (From French frimas, "frost") Starting Nov 21, 22 or 23
Winter:
Nivôse (from Latin nivosus, "snowy") Starting Dec 21, 22 or 23
Pluviôse (from Latin pluviosus, "rainy") Starting Jan 20, 21 or 22
Ventôse (from Latin ventosus, "windy") Starting Feb 19, 20 or 21
Spring:
Germinal (from Latin germen, "seed") Starting Mar 20 or 21
Floréal (from Latin flos, "flower") Starting Apr 20 or 21
Prairial (from French prairie, "meadow") Starting May 20 or 21
Summer:
Messidor (from Latin messis, "harvest") Starting Jun 19 or 20
Thermidor (from Greek thermos, "hot") Starting Jul 19 or 20
Fructidor (from Latin fructus, "fruits") Starting Aug 18 or 19
In England, people against the Revolution mocked the calendar by calling the months: Wheezy, Sneezy and Freezy; Slippy, Drippy and Nippy; Showery, Flowery and Bowery; Wheaty, Heaty and Sweaty.
2006-09-25 23:03:07
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answer #1
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answered by Anonymous
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Logically? No reason.
A second is officially defined as 9,192,631,770 oscillations of a cesium-133 atom
The division of time dates back to Egyptian and Babylonian times. Egyptians had a calendar of 12 30-day months, giving 360 days a year (which we have now found to be off a little). 360 divided by 6 is 60, which is a base number in the Babylonian math system (60 seconds = 1 minute, 60 minutes = 1 hour).
Time is divided metrically for time that is less than a second, however.
2006-09-25 07:47:35
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answer #2
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answered by iron03triathlete 1
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Sorry there's so much here - but you asked a question that requires a detailed answer. Make sure you read it all.
"1 WHY DOES MONDAY COME ROUND SO QUICKLY?
How the numbers of the moon combined to make our week
...the seven-day week came about thanks to superstition, coincidence, human error, a need for order - and some elementary mathematics. These things aren't just responsible for the week having seven days, they also determined the orderof the days in the Western calender. ...
The moon calendar - and the number twelve
After the sun, the moon is by far the most predominant presence in the sky, and it goes through an obvious cycle... .
Archaeologists have found various clues that suggest that as far back as 30,000 BC the moon's cycle was being followed
closely. ...
There are good reasons why the moon would have been important to primative people. The period of full moon to full moon concides almost exactly with the periods between ovulations for women. ...
There is another reason why the moon would have had such an attraction as a timekeeper. The cycles of he moon are a natural way of dividing up the year. There are roughly twelve moons in a year, so that became the obvious dividing number... . ...
If the fluke of there being twelve moons per year first established this number as a fundamental measure of time, then the discoveries of the early civilisations in Egypt and Greece set the number twelve in stone.
Twelve is a conveniently small number, and it has other useful properties. One of the most important is that the number can be divided into two equal parts, or three, or four or six - which makes it a practical quantity for measuring and sndharing. ...
12: an abuntant number
All whole numbers have factors ... . The factors of twelve are 6, 4, 3, 2 and 1, which add up to 16. A number whose factors add up to more than the number itself is called 'abundant' and 12 is the smallest such number. ...mathematicians ... began to look at not just whether numbers are abundant or not, but how abundant they are. ... 12's abundancy is 16/12 or 1.33. It is beaten by 24 (36/24 = 1.5) amd this abundancy increases with every multiple of twelve up to 60, whose factors add up to 108. (108/60 scores a whopping 1.8) The number 60 is highly abundant because so many numbers divide into it, and this is why it became a popular base for counting. ...
The moon, the planets and the number seven
... From the earliest times, it would have been observed that ... stars were themselves slowly rotating, and that their rotation, like the sun's, took exactly a day. ... Some bright stars didn't follow the rest but moved at different speeds, and occasionally even looped back on themselves. ... They became known as the wanderers, for which the Greek word was planetes. Since these planets each had their own distinct movements, it was only natural too give them names. By the time of the Romans, they were known in today's English as the Moon, the Sun, Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, Mars and Mercury.
It was almost certainly because of this belief that there were seven so-called planets that this number aquireda mystical status. But, as with the number twelve, it took another coincidence to seal the significance of the number seven is linked to the cycle of the moon. From full moon to no moon is about fourteen days - two lots of seven. Full moon back to full moon is just over 29 days - not far from four lots of seven, or 28. And 28 is also a number loaded with mathematical significance,...
28: a perfect number
The factors of 28 are 1, 2, 4, 7 and 14 - ... these add up to 28. The Greeks ... labelled this number, and others with the same property, as 'perfect numbers'. ...
...
The belief that numbers with curious mathematical properties were in some way mystical would certainly have helped to establish those numbers as part of the culture. The perfect number 28 and the abundant number 12 were two of the main benerficiaries.
...
Linking the hours and the planets
We've seen how ... the numbers12 and 7 became crucial to the measurement of time, 12 because it divided up the year and, later, the day, and 7 because it divided up the month. The modern week was now ready to evolve, and the names of the days were to emerge because of obe further link between those two mystical numbers.
It had been established early in astronomical history that each of the planets took a different amount of time to complete a cycle ... . This led the planets to be given a hierarchy, with Saturn, the planet with the longest cycle, being the most senior.
...
The Egyptians were the first to divide the daylight into twelve hours, and then, aroung 1000BC, the Babylonians ... divided the day and night into 24 hours. Instead of naming the days after the planets, they decided to name the hours after the planets. The first hour was allocated to the most senior planet, Saturn, the second hour to the second planet, Jupiter, ..., repeating the cycle of seven planets throughout the 24 hours and continuing it into the following days.
...
Because 7 doesn't divide exactly into 24, the planet at the... [start] of each day changes. After seven days each of the seven planets has been at the... [start of each day] and ... the cycle begins again.
The planet at the... [start] of each day became known as its 'dominant' planet, and it became custom to name the day after thus dominant planet.
...
The Britons ... preserved the Sun-day [and the Saturn-day and Moon-day] ,but sacrificed the last four planet days to Anglo-Saxon Gods, Tiw, Woden, Thor and Frig. ..."
2006-09-28 08:20:59
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answer #3
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answered by Helen B 5
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The answer is that some of the ways we measure time predate the decimal system.
The Egyptians came up with the 24 hour day. Minutes and seconds were invented by the Babylonians for their astronomical calculations.
The seven day week appears to be common in antiquity, but no-one knows where it came from.
A day is the length of time it takes the earth to spin once on its axis.
A month is the length of time it takes the moon to orbit the earth.
A year is the length of time it takes the earth to complete one orbit of the sun.
Then it's all decimal...decades, centuries, millennia...until you get to ages (like the middle ages), defined by historians, and periods, eras and eons, defined by geologists.
2006-09-25 07:46:24
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answer #4
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answered by robin p 2
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Because no one likes the metric system.
2006-09-28 04:02:19
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answer #5
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answered by yermomsux 2
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