Time’s unit of measurement system is currently broken, as of 2022 we are using a system that is essentially four different systems all merged into one and forced to work together. These systems include the Babylonian base-60 for seconds and minutes. The Greek astronomer Hipparchus whose day is converted into 24-hours, and the Roman king Numa Pompilius whose calendar year is divided into 12-months, both systems are base-12. Then for Centiseconds and below plus decades and above, we use base-10.
This is all very confusing, as we are trying to join together a mishmash of different civilizations systems, where each new system was forced into the old system, which is why we have so many variances in our units of time.
BABYLON (2022) TIME
Currently, time is set up on base-10, base-12, and base-60 as below:
10 Milliseconds =1 centisecond (base-10)
100 Centiseconds = 1 second (base-10)
60 Seconds = 1 minute (base-60)
60 Minutes = 1 hour (base-60)
24 Hours = 1 day (base-12)
28 > 31 days = 1 month (variable with no assigned base)
12 months = 1 year (base-12)
10 years = 1 decade (base-10)
10 decades = 1 century (base-10)
As you can see by a quick scan down the left hand side number column, there is quite a bit of variance in what goes into making the next number with no equal flow. This may have been simplicity for several hundred years ago, however, this is complexity for the year 2022.
Therefore, we need to rewrite the format of time. I propose the below (in base-12) format of time:
IDEAL TIME
100 Milliseconds = 1 centisecond
100 Centiseconds = 1 second
100 Seconds = 1 minute
100 Minutes = 1 hour
10 Hours = 1 day
26 days = 1 month
10 months = 1 year
10 years = 1 decade
10 decades = 1 century
IDEAL TO BABYLONIAN TIME COMPARISON
The two biggest time variances that would be noticed by existing Babylonian (2022) users is the reduction in time of minutes and seconds, which are converted as below:
1-second of ideal time = 0.5-seconds of Babylonian (2022) time
1-minute of ideal time = 50-seconds of Babylonian (2022) time
1-hour of ideal time = 120-minutes of Babylonian (2022) time
This highlights that each second and minute would be faster than the Babylonian (2022) known second or minute. Whereas each hour of Ideal time is twice as long as Babylonian (2022) time. Whilst this may seem arbitrary, there is great power in having numbers simplified so all citizens can easily make any calculations.
EXAMPLE
What is 25% of an hour? it is 15-minutes… Wouldn’t that be much simpler if 25% of 1-hour was 25-minutes? How many minutes is one and three quarters of an hour (1.75) hours is currently 105-minutes, this would be much simpler if 1.75 hours was 175-minutes… Therefore, simplicity must prevail and units of time must be divisible by our numeral system, there is no need for unnecessary complexity in our already complex lives.
“units of time must be divisible by our numeral system”
A great real-world example comes from when I used to calculate employee’s work hours for payroll, the most common workday was 11 hours and 45 minutes which is frustrating converting multiple lots of 45-minutes when the calculator adds up in lots of 100 instead of 60. Therefore, 10.45 hours x 6 days in a calculator shows 62.70 hours. But this is incorrect, as our system is a base 10 and calculated out of .100 in this instance, and time is on base-60. The correct calculation via a conversion table shows the employee actually worked 64.50 hours.
BABYLONIAN (2022) MEASUREMENT OF TIME
Currently, one (1) second is defined as “9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the cesium-133 atom”.
This second is based on a series of observations of the Earth’s orbit by astronomer Simon Newcomb between 1790 and 1892. Originally called the ephemeris second, which was a fraction of the observable year, as defined by Newcomb’s tables.
When scientists moved to the more accurate “atomic clock” in 1967, they calibrated it with Newcomb’s measurements. The atomic second is still the same length of time as the old ephemeris second, the big advantage is that there is now (almost) no slippage of time, and atomic clocks remain incredibly accurate and only slip by one second every 210-million-years.
IDEAL MEASUREMENT OF TIME
To enact the herein described simplified units of time, we will need to recalibrate the atomic clock and rewrite how long a second is. This requires a new calculation to be made regarding the number of periods regarding the Cesium-133 atom.
We currently know that each second is 0.5 times faster when compared to the Babylonian (2022) second, therefore, we can simply divide 9,192,631,770 periods by two (2) to achieve the desired number of atomic periods for accurate time tracking.
This tells us that the new atomic calculation for one (1) Ideal second is 4596315885 periods of the Cesium-133 atom.
Whilst the Cesium-133 atom time slippage is just 1-second every 210-million-years, which may seem like a negligible amount, there is a new atomic clock being developed which is based on the element strontium. This is reliable to only slip one (1) second every fourty-two (42) billion years. The strontium atomic clock should be the official method of timekeeping used going forth once perfected (until something more accurate comes along and has been verified for a minimum of 20-years).
CONCLUSION
Having a simplified time system that is in sync with the numeral system provides simplicity of mind and an ease of use. However, the new length of minutes and seconds will take some adapting to for existing users of the outdated Babylonian (2022) units of time. Additionally, changing to the Detric system (base-12) in the first place poses many challenges in itself.
Please let me know your thoughts, if there are any other improvements, I am always happy to have constructive feedback.
Kind regards,
Trent Revic
Ps, in order to understand this article in its full-complexity, you may want to read my original article on the Detric (Base-12) system here.
