“The theory of relativity put an end to the idea of absolute
time! It appeared that each observer
must have his own measure of time as recorded by a clock carried with him, and
that identical clocks carried by different observers would not necessarily
agree.”
A Brief History of Time
By Stephen Hawking
TODAY’S DATE IS MARCH 10, 2012…. I THINK….. MAYBE I AM
WRONG.
This year as we approach Daylight Savings Time, and have to
set our clocks forward one hour, we are also living through the four year
phenomenon of a leap year.
The Earth takes 365days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds
to make one revolution around the sun.
At some point in human history man became aware of the
cyclic nature of the seasons and very early on primitive cultures designed
lunar calendars to predict seasonal changes that affected their life
styles.
Six thousand years ago the Egyptians devised a solar
calendar of twelve months of thirty days plus an extra five days. This was later adopted by the Greeks. The
Romans took the Greek calendar and modified it to include a leap year. Israel
and Saudi Arabia
still use a modified lunar calendar to this day.
There was no one born on earth and no one died between
October 5th and October 14th in the year 1582.
The Julian calendar, a reform of the Roman calendar, was introduced
by Julia Caesar in the year 46 BC. The
calendar design was 365 days divided into twelve months with a leap day added
to February every four years. Even with
leap day added, this calendar was off by eleven minutes a year and so by 1582
the error had accumulated to ten days.
To correct this inconsistency Pope Gregory XIII decreed that the day
following October 4th would be called October 15th
(skipping ten days.)
Great Britton did not adopt the Gregorian calendar until
1752, at which time they dropped eleven days from September to correct for the
time disparagement, and they moved News Years day from March 25th to
January 1st.
You think this is confusing?
The way it actually works is:
Every four years we add a day (February 29,) but every year
devisable by 100 we skip the extra day – unless the date is also divisible by
400, in which case we add the day.
Even with all the adjustments our calendar is still not
accurate. On December 31, 1999 the world
stood by for a millennium computer disaster, while fundamentalist Christian
churches portended the Rapture would bring about an end of the world. However, in our western calendar there is no
zero-year, so 2001 was actually the beginning of the 21st century,
and as far as we can determine the birth of Jesus took place in the year of 4
BC (December 25 is an arbitrary date), so our Christian calendar is off by four
years.
TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE
‘Time should be considered as Philosophy not Physics – Time
is a property of human consciousness, not a factor of the universe. It is a filing system that humans use to
measure certain points during their journey of existence. The basic elements of the universe, whether
subatomic or large, simply go about their business of being matter or energy
without regard to how long they have existed.”
Paraphrased from comments by Bob Fish in Discovery Magazine
08/2007
In the early days of America, farmers kept time by a
noon mark: a stick at the base of a north/south mark on the ground. This worked fine until the advent of the
railroad. Railroads had to keep to a
time schedule for arrival and departures, and it was impossible to publish a
schedule that reflected sun time. Sun time differed from town to town and city
to city: when it was noon in New York City it
was 11:55 in Philadelphia; 11: 47 in Washington; 11:35 in Pittsburg - as many as 30 different times
could be found in towns on an east/west course across most states.
In 1847 the railroads proposed a standard time schedule for
the US
with 4 time zones. Railroads in England began operating on a standard time
schedule in 1880, and in 1883 the railroads in the US began operating on a new
standard time schedule.
Congress called for an international conference to establish
international time zones, and at that conference it was decided that the zero
time zone be located in England. In America, Christians
opposed the time zones (God’s time, not Vanderbilt’s) and preachers across the
country smashed clocks and watches on their pulpits. When it became obvious that time zones were
inevitable Christians wanted Bethlehem
to be named the zero time zone.
DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME
Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy
and wise.
Ben Franklin
Europe enacted Daylight
Savings Time (DST) in 1916 during World War One to conserve energy and maximize
daylight production. After the US entered the
war in 1917 it switched to DST to maximize factory production. In 1919 DST was repealed by Congress, but was
reinstated during World War Two, though states were allowed to opt out. In 1966 Congress passed the Uniform Time
Act, and at present all states, with the exception of Arizona, observe Daylight Savings Time.
Daylight Savings Time was sold to the public as an
adjustment of working hours to allow for more recreational time for
workers. In reality Congress sees an economic basis: production is higher
during daylight hours so on second shifts workers tend to produce more goods
during DST, also the extended daylight after work allows more hours for
shoppers and increases retail sales.
When I was working I always hated Daylight Savings Time in
the spring and loved it in the fall. To
me, the extra hour in bed was always more important than extra daylight after
work.
the Ol'Buzzard
