Here is the latest incarnation.
With respect, it's hardly the latest, since I first saw that page a couple
of years ago. I have seen other examples of "metric time" since then, but
have not thought them worthy of mention here. For instance, some fellow in
Iceland created a Decimal Time Project at http://dada.is/DTP/ , which counts
the days since the metric decree of April 7, 1795, similar to Julian Day
numbers, and defines a unit named Dies as equal to one day, with metric
prefixes, e.g. KiloDies, HectoDies, DekaDies, deciDies, centiDies, milliDies
and microDies. This, at least, is more "metric" than most so-called "metric
time" proposals. However, others have, over the years, also proposed adding
metric prefixes to the day unit.
Of course, "metric clocks" which divide the day into ten "hours", hours into
one hundred "minutes", etc., are usually recreating French revolutionary
decimal time. This was never a part of the metric system, but was
introduced at about the same time. The 1795 decree, which defined the units
metre, are, stere, litre and gramme, and the metric prefixes, did not
include a unit for time, and ironically suspended the mandatory use of
decimal time, which had been enacted nearly two years before.
About a century later, the French, through an official committee headed by
Henri Poincaré, again attempted to decimalize civil time and proposed the
standard hour as the metric unit, but it also did not get very far. By this
time, scientists were already using the second as part of the metric system.
--
John Hynes
San Francisco
www.decimaltime.org
Quartidi 4 Thermidor, an CCXV à 5 hd 28 (temps moyen de Paris)
----- Original Message -----
From: Pat Naughtin
Sent: Sat, 21 Jul 2007 15:05:46 -0700
Subject: [USMA:39120] Metric clock
Dear All,
The idea of decimal time constantly re-occurs. Here is the latest
incarnation.
http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/status/metricclock.html
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
PO Box 305, Belmont, 3216
Geelong, Australia
Phone 61 3 5241 2008
Pat Naughtin is the editor of the free online monthly newsletter,
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