Hmmmm,

that means we also would need to revise angular measurement. There are considerable homologies between the angular measurements and time measurements. Particularly in astronomy but elsewhere besides.

I suggest that to be truly "modern" we should abandon metricity and adopt (with modifications) a binary angular notation for time measurement.There are (2 x pi) radians (or binary 10pi radians) in a circle. Therefore 1 hour is pi/12 radians o' the clock. Or, maintaining metricity, the "neo hour" could easily be 0.1pi, with twenty neohours in a day and so it goes. What fun! and such a boon for juniour maths teachers besides.

Think of the children.

Rusty

Dear Rusty,

Brilliant suggestion.

Unfortunately, us mere mortals have only
ten fingers on our hands and most of us
can't count beyond multiples of ten.

Besides the computer binary system (01,01,01),
clearly shows the decimal.

It appears that decimal time has been found to be
dismal. Perhaps the 22nd Century and greater
advancement of computer technology will find a
place in decimal time.

So I shall clock off for now.
(In decimal time).
(I'm counting on my fingers).

Dear Foxy,

If we really want to be au courant with the computer age we should get rid of the decimal system altogether. Computer logic works on a binary system. This means that we have to translate our input from decimal to binary and our output from binary to decimal. We could eliminate the conversion by changing our number system to one with a base of a power of 2 - 2, 4, 8, 16 - binary, quaternary, octal or sexadecimal. We no longer count on our fingers so we can dispense with the decimal system altogether. Counting by binary - 1, 10, 11, 100, etc. Counting by quaternary - 1, 2, 3, 10, 11 etc. Counting by octal - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11 etc. Counting by sexadecimal 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E. F, 10, 11 etc.

In a computer age we could do better with a power of 2 number base and get rid of the decimal system altogether.

Dear David F,

Then how would time and the calendar work?
Keep in mind we have clocks and printed
diaries and calendars.

Dear Foxy,

If we went to a sixteen hour day each hour would be one and a half times what it is now. That is an easier adjustment then going to a ten hour day. The length of a year depends on the time it takes the earth to revolve around the sun. All one has to do is convert 365 to sexadecimal. 365 to the base 10 = 16D to the base 16. We would still have to make adjustments for leap years as the revolution of the sun around the earth is not an integral number of days. There would be four months named spring, summer, autumn and winter. Four is a power of two.