On Mon, Jan 27, 2003 at 09:20:46PM -0500, John Peacock wrote: > > On the other hand, if someone wants to know how many months there were > between May, 1776 and June, 1976, it seems less than helpful to convert to > Rata Die or seconds (or heavens be, attoseconds ;~) to store the data, then > subtracting and finally dividing repeatedly, just to get the answer 200*12 > + 1.
There is something else to consider. What does a timestamp of "May 5, 1776, 4:16:23 PM" actually _mean_? For "May 5, 1976, 4:16:23 PM", it's clear which point in time we mean when we have the timezone. But for dates 200 years ago, it isn't so clear. When it was 4 PM here, it would have been 4:10 PM in the next town, and 3:55 in a town in the other direction. Second or even minute precision doesn't make much sense for long ago dates if you don't have a geographical location as well. And it becomes even more difficult if you go back further in time. There was a time when a night lasted 12 hours, a day 10, and one hour both for dusk and dawn. What do 'seconds' mean for such dates? Abigail
