Taken from this web site
http://www.trimboli.name/stardate/
How to Calculate the Stardate
Contents
* Introduction
* Background
* The basic idea
* Calculating the Stardate
* Sample calculation
* Conclusion
Introduction
Hello! I’m David, although some people who read this page will know me better
as SuStel. Because I have been signing my e-mail with a curious little Stardate
number for many years now (since the early 1990s!), I get many requests to
explain exactly how I come up with this number. In the interest of saving
myself from typing the same answer to many people, I decided to put up this Web
page to answer this very question.
Please note: this system is not used by anyone who works on Star Trek or at
Paramount. It is totally unofficial.
Background
Many years ago, while I was still in college, I found the Stardate Mini-FAQ on
the Internet, a document that analyzed the Stardates mentioned in log entries
on the various Star Trek shows and movies. It was thorough and informative. I
already knew the fact that Stardates on Star Trek: The Next Generation followed
the format of 1000 units = 1 year, but it also made many other observations.
The most striking was that Stardates in the original series of Star Trek begin
with 1312.4 (“Where No Man Has Gone Before”) and end with 5943.7 (“All Our
Yesterdays”). That’s a difference of 4,631.3 units, tantalizingly close to
5,000 units which, in Next Generation terms, would be five years… exactly the
length of Kirk’s first mission as captain of the Enterprise!
This sort of consistency (well, the movies don’t really work this way) was too
much for me to pass up. I’d been dating things with a pseudo-stardate system
with which many are familiar (for example, November 2, 1996 would be written as
9611.02), but here was a chance for a truly decimal system. I got right to work.
The basic idea
In order to assign 1,000 units to exactly one year, I had to decide exactly
what a year is. After all, one out of every four is different than the others.
However, each century of the Julian calendar is exactly the same length
(actually, most countries, including the United States, use the Gregorian
calendar, where every 400 years is identical in length, not every 100, but
since the difference won’t be noticable until March of 2100, I think you’ll
agree that it doesn’t really matter if I take this little liberty — see below).
If 1,000 units are one year, then 100,000 units are one century. Lo, and
behold! A Next Generation Stardate like 47988.0 must be any number between 0
and 100,000. Perfect!
So, all I had to do is determine exactly how much of the current century had
passed so far, divide it by the total amount of time in the century (all of
this based on, I decided, Greenwich Mean Time), and multiply by factors of 10
until I got the correct number of digits.
Calculating the Stardate
For the sake of making the first two numbers of the Stardate match the current
year’s number, I decided to consider the 20th century as starting in 1900 and
ending at the end of 1999. Note: this is not really true! I came up with an
algorithm that calculates this, and wrote a Turbo Pascal program that does it
all for me. This is a very simple program, and anyone using it must modify it
to his time zone, possibly removing the corrections for Daylight Saving Time.
For simplicity, I have used a system that resembles the Julian Calendar, rather
than the Gregorian Calendar that we really use. Under the Julian system, each
century is exactly the same length, whereas under the Gregorian system every
400 years is exactly the same length. So far, I have not decided to update my
system with a more accurate one (i.e., one which follows the Gregorian system).
The inaccuracy in using the Julian calendar is hardly noticeable, and won’t
kick in until March of AD 2100. I’m not worried, are you? (If this bothers
you, feel free to send me e-mail and we’ll discuss it.) The reason for this
decision is simple: the program runs off a computer’s internal clock, which
doesn’t necessarily make the current century known.
If you’re interested, my friend d’Armond Speers (aka Holtej) has written a
Windows version of my Stardate code. It’s a great program, and you may download
this program if you like.
Sample calculation
1. Right now, it’s 13:30 EST 2 November 1996 (which means that it is
18:30 GMT). The last leap year, not including this one, was 1992. That’s 92
years of century as of 1 January 1992. That’s also 92 × 365.25 = 33603 days.
Call this A.
2. Since then, there have been the full years 1992–1995. This is 366 +
365 + 365 + 365 days, or 1461 days. Call this B.
3. Since 1 January 1996, there have been 31 +29 + 31 + 30 + 31 + 30 +
31 + 31 + 30 + 31 days completed as of the end of 31 October. This is 305 days.
Call this C.
4. This month, there has been 1 completed day (November 1). Call this D.
5. As of this time, about 0.77 days have passed today (I keep more
significant digits when using the program). Call this E.
6. 100 years is equal to 36,525 days. Call this F.
7. Calculate the stardate fraction: (A + B + C + D + E) ÷ F = 0.9683989…
8. To put this into the format used in Star Trek: The Next Generation,
simply multiply by 100,000. Truncating (never round, since you have to complete
a time unit before you count it), this gives you Stardate 96839.8.
Conclusion
There you have it: my Stardate system, the only truly decimal time-keeping
system I’ve ever seen. After using it for a while, you may notice that the
first decimal place in the Stardate is very roughly equivalent to one hour.
This makes the system useful for short-term timekeeping. However, it is also
able to keep account of time information for up to a century!
When the year 2000 finally arrived, I decided to roll my Stardates back to zero
— no sense in adding an additional digit. Besides, now that the year 2001 is
past, there are four whole digits, and you can read the Stardate in the same
way that Kirk does — as in “thirty-seven twenty-nine point six.” Excellent!
I am always interested in hearing any comments that anyone may have regarding
this system. Feel free to write to me about it.
________________________________
From: Roys Pangayoman <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Monday, May 18, 2009 3:32:07 PM
Subject: Re: [Indo-StarTrek] Seriuskan petisi (WAS:Star Trek di TV)
Trekkies..
Ada yg bisa tolong jelasin ttg "stardate" ?
Thx
Roys A. Pangayoman, General surgeon
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
