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marino5856

Why are there 24 hours in a day? › Ask an Expert (ABC Science) - 0 views

www.abc.net.au/...3364432.htm

day hours

shared by marino5856 on 31 Oct 14 - No Cached
  • "The origin of our time system of 24 hours in a day with each hour subdivided into 60 minutes and then 60 seconds is complex and interesting," says Dr Nick Lomb, consultant curator of astronomy, from the Sydney Observatory.
  • Our 24-hour day comes from the ancient Egyptians who divided day-time into 10 hours they measured with devices such as shadow clocks, and added a twilight hour at the beginning and another one at the end of the day-time, says Lomb.
  • "Night-time was divided in 12 hours, based on the observations of stars. The Egyptians had a system of 36 star groups called 'decans' — chosen so that on any night one decan rose 40 minutes after the previous one.
    • marino5856
      marino5856 on 04 Nov 14
       
      The 24 hours has been invented by the egyptians. They first divided it into 10 hours but then they divided it in 12 because of the twilight. So night time was divide in 12 hours because they wanted to see the stars in the night and also that there would be light in the day.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • The subdivision of hours and minutes into 60 comes from the ancient Babylonians who had a predilection for using numbers to the base 60. For example, III II (using slightly different strokes) meant three times 60 plus two or 182.
  • "We have retained from the Babylonians not only hours and minutes divided into 60, but also their division of a circle into 360 parts or degrees," says Lomb.
  • While each country has (in broad terms) historically had distinct measurements for distance, weights etc the method of splitting the day into 24 hours, one hour into 60 mins and one minute into 60 seconds seems to be the only one in use, and indeed to me the only one I know of. This non-metric measurement of time is far from ideal, but what other comparably accurate methods have been used historically?
marino5856

Clocks - How Time Works - 1 views

science.howstuffworks.com/...time2.htm

How does the clock works

shared by marino5856 on 31 Oct 14 - No Cached
  • A day consists of two 12-hour periods, for a total of 24 hours. An hour consists of 60 minutes. A minute consists of 60 seconds. Seconds are subdivided on a decimal system into things like "hundredths of a second" or "millionths of a second."
    • marino5856
      marino5856 on 04 Nov 14
       
      There is 24 hours in a day because  they first divided 60 and that equals 12. So 12 plus 12 equals 24 so thats how they had 24 hours in a day.
  • hat's a pretty bizarre way to divide a day up. We divide it in half, then divide the halves by twelfths, then divide the twelfths into sixtieths, then divide by 60 again, and then convert to a decimal system for the smallest increments. It's no wonder children have trouble learning how to tell time.
  • How long is a day? It's the amount of time it takes for the Earth to rotate one time on its axis. But how long does it take the Earth to rotate? That is where things become completely arbitrary. The world has decided to standardize on the following increments:
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  • Why are there 24 hours in a day? No one really knows. However, the tradition goes back a long way. Take, for example, this quote from Encyclopedia Britannica:
  • Why are there 60 minutes in an hour and 60 seconds in a minute? Again, it is unclear. It is known, however, that Egyptians once used a calendar that had 12 30-day months, giving them 360 days. This is believed to be the reason why we now divide circles into 360 degrees. Dividing 360 by 6 gives you 60, and 60 is also a base number in the Babylonian math system.
    • marino5856
      marino5856 on 04 Nov 14
       
      The Egyptians had a calendar that has 12 months so that equals 360 day in total. Also science they new that there is 360 days in a year thats why a circle is 360 degrees. The Roman people invented that so that in the clock there is not 24 hours in a clock so there is 12 am and 12pm.
  • What do a.m. and p.m. mean? These abbreviations stand for ante meridiem, before midday, and post meridiem, after midday, and they are a Roman invention. According to Daniel Boorstin in his book The Discoverers, this simple division of the day into two parts was the Romans' first increment of time within a day:
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