davidf,

True - there is no one way of measuring things.

The point I was getting at is that "decimalising" things only works when man completely defines the measurement. The most important thing with measurement is that it works. Next is that it works conveniently and efficiently. In the case of weights and monetary systems etc, decimal is best, because it works and is efficient. In the case of time - which, to be of most use to us, must conform with our daily cycles - decimal doesn't work. So, we've developed the best system that works which is the calendar and hh:mm:ss system.

For the scientifically inclined I think you're over thinking the issue.
Time as we mortals understand it is a man created naming peculiarity.

As I understand foxy, all she is saying is decimalize the units for common computational simplicity. 100 minutes an hour 20 hours a day simple arithmetic is involved. The content/length of each unit would vary to accommodate.
in short a new decimal hour would contain 1.2 old hours i.e. 72 old minutes etc. No biggy .
I smell the ghost of Y2 bug being summoned up.

The immediate issue at that level is the starting date.

Theoretically my birthday would then be 6.6.10 not 7.7.10 :-(
a month and 1 day older ;-) (joke)

That would mean I'm a Saturday child not a Friday's child....Yah

My wife birthday 5.7.10 not 8.8.10.

Dear Robp,

It is not decimal that works. It is having multiples of the same base whether the base is octal, decimal, hexadecimal or anything else. The basic unit of length in the metric system is the metre. We have subunits in tenths, hundredths etc. and superunits in terms of tens, hundreds etc.

If we had an octal system then the subunits would be in eighths, sixty fourths etc., and the superunits would be in eights, sixty fours etc.In the previous sentence I have used decimal language to express the octal units. If we were to think in octal then eights and sixty fours would be tens and hundreds. That would be more compatible with computer usage.

examinator,

If you mean plug in a date into a computer and work out what the date and time will be in 100 days and 1 minute, 43 seconds or something, computer programs already do this. They can do so by picking some arbitrary starting time (eg, 1 January 1970) and compute the running seconds from that time onwards.

Eg, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 12:32:05 PM EST was 1265679125 seconds after 00:00:00 January 1 1970.

That way all you have to do is plug in the time duration to a computer, it converts it to running seconds, adds it to your start date (in running seconds) and then converts back to a date and time. You can't see any of this because it's all done behind the scenes.

Time in space - how will we measure it?
There is no earth, no rotation, no seasons,
and no established past record.
How will computers handle it?
How will we communicate time with other
inter-planetary cultures?

Something to contemplate.

The unit of 12 is divisible by 1,2,3,4,and 6, which is 1/6, 1/4, 1/3, 1/2 the unit 10 is not equally divisible by as many equal full unit callabrations. A quarter of a circle quadrants an angle of 90 degrees. Latitudinal lines are calibrated on the degrees of a circle and time changes are linked to the latitudinal lines on the circumference of the Earth. Do we change geometry to reflect a 100 degrees in a quadrant and 400 longitudinal divisions to define time changes?

What is 1/6 of 10, or 1/3 of 10. In packaging goods it is not as practical; as most goods are packaged in containers 3 x 4 to pack in 10 can only be packed in 2 x 5.