Ask HN: Is the statement "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere" always factual? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is the statement "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere" always factual?

3 pointsdevmonk5 comments

Of course there is the song, and a wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_Five_O%27Clock_Somewhere

But, what if it is 14:02 in Mumbai? And what about our whole notion of time being a good deal fabricated? Does "somewhere" include other universes, and would 5 o'clock in another universe be included in somewhere? Could somewhere also include a black hole in our universe where what we might call 5 o'clock exists even though it is 8:49 in Toulouse?

Is or isn't this statement (often) factually incorrect?

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I can't tell if you are not entirely sober or way too philosophical, but I think you are confusing timekeeping (as a socially agreed convention for referring to time) and time the physical quantity (the fourth dimension if you prefer).

I very much suspect the song refers to the former.

I think you may be taking the song a bit too literal (especially since you quoted the "somewhere" in your second paragraph).

It is a song about drinking any time of the day...

Maybe you've been living out the songs message and aren't thinking entirely straight.

Regardless, here you go: the 5o'clock refers to a method of keeping score. A day, hour, minute, etc is of arbitrary length, only having the value we agree to assign to it.

Because time zones (used to keep the sun generally rising and setting around the same time across the globe except in the extreme north and south) are differentiated in blocks larger than 1 minute (typically 30 or 60 minutes) it is not 5o'clock somewhere when it is 5:42 somewhere else.

However, the sun's location across a time zone will be higher in the sky as you move further west. So for example, in eastern Arizona (when it is on Pacific time) the sun will set earlier than it does in California. 5o'clock in Arizona may look more like 5:42 in California.

Enjoy my much more lengthy than necessary answer. I am sitting at work with nothing to do. So you get to read my ramblings.

This, like so many questions, is not a factual question; it's a semantics question. Fully define "5 o'clock", then read off the answer from the definition. There are some for which it is true (sun-based time, noting that 5 o'clock in English usage encompasses more than the 60 seconds from 5:00:00 to 5:00:59), and some for which it is false (strictly pendantic human time, etc.). The confusion comes from the idea that there must be one true definition, not from the question of whether the claim is factually correct. Spending time pondering which is the True Truth is false enlightenment.

See also: Is X Art?, for any value of X and Art.

If you tell time by the sun, it is factual. If you use a clock and accept the existence of time zones, then it is only true 36 times a day (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_zone#Time_zone_as_offsets_...).

Now get back to work or you'll end up like that timecube guy.

Well, no need to go that far really, 'sun time' is not the same as timezones, midday is when the Earths motion makes the sun appear at it's zenith, a fixed number of degrees from that point would make it 5 O'clock, so such a point can always be found.

Timezones and time are a human convention, the rest of the universe doesn't really care.

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