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Comment by SkyMarshal | Hacker News Reader

>If we’ve somehow got an entire society that can play gymnastics with time in this way, and claim to wrap their head around it, I don’t think changing the calendar is really a huge ask. But I think the only way to pull it off is for the government to mandate its use. There's just not enough interest in fighting the currents for this to reach critical mass otherwise.

While we’re at it let’s convert to the Metric System too. Rip all the bandaids off at once.

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Only if we switch to Base-16 at the same time.

While I agree in theory, in practice it’s still a bigger problem, as actual infrastructure needs to be changed for the metric system.

As was proven with the recent change of the DST dates, most calendars are handled by computers these days. It would be relatively straightforward to change the calendar.

There would be problems though. Monthly payments for things, for example, would need to be adjusted. So there would still need to be significant lead time.

Other countries have done it in modern times, the UK for one.

I’m just saying we shouldn’t connect the two, not that it’s impossible.

Also, the UK is far smaller than the US, making the infrastructure probably a bit more tractable.

How about the metric time system?

1 day = 10 hours

1 hour = 10 minutes

1 minute = 10 second minutes

1 second minute = 10 third minutes

Or should it scale at 1:100? Why or why not?

I built and android app just like this that marks ten hours, ten minutes, ten seconds and ten ticks being each tick 0.864 ancient seconds. Midnight starts at 000 and noon at 500.

Link?

Not the original poster, but I have decimal time as part of my (free) Android French Revolutionary Calendar app.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ttaxus.the...

or the source https://github.com/jhbadger/Thermidor-Android

The French [0] tried to implement this twice! They failed both times, and I think it's due to more than having everyone in the world (or country) relearn to hold time in their head. Ultimately I believe it becomes less practical in day-to-day usage. 12 (and obviously 60, as a multiple of 12) can be divided by 2,3,4, and 6, while 10 can only be divided by 2 and 5. This would be the most difficult change for people, as a quarter or third of an hour are important metrics for daily life (I understand that seconds expand the divisibility for the sake of quarters (thirds remain unattainable), but this can happen in our current system and it's not often people speak in eighths of hours). I think this is a more common usage than the expansion of seconds-to-minutes, hours-to-seconds, etc. (a use-case where the decimal system really shines). Though, perhaps with the simplicity of the scaling, people would change their perspective on how they think/speak about time! It's definitely interesting to think about.

As an aside, I think this makes for a lot of practical uses for the imperial system of measurement. In a scale-intensive environment (science labs, kitchens, etc.), I think it would be foolish to not use metric. However, with small, one-off projects (mostly w/r/t length) I think it makes great sense to use feet and inches for halves, thirds, and quarters.

[0] http://mentalfloss.com/article/32127/decimal-time-how-french...

You must be from the US, Liberia or Myanmar.

Or the UK, where they drive in miles and weigh themselves in Stones.

In the USA, you can buy soda in liters and most cars use metric wrenches.

In the UK, you can buy pop in litres :)

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