Comment on Fictional

• shneancy@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  proton masses are rather small - inconvenient

  the distance light travels at a certain time - then it’ll just be based on our artificial units of time

  cesium oscillation i don’t know much about but from what i quickly read it’s also about keeping time, 1s to be precise, which is still an arbitrary unit

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  • TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Time can be non arbitrarily defined as a round number value of times cesium oscillates between two hyperfine states, to allow time to be non arbitrary and still a useful size.

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    • Zorcron@lemmy.zip ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      The round number would still be arbitrary, no? It’s roundness would be based on the base 10 counting system, which is also arbitrary.

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      • atomicorange@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Not arbitrary. Base 10 because we usually have 10 fingers and those are useful for learning counting. If you have to choose a base, 10 is a good option for humans.

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    • kuberoot@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      That’s still an arbitrary number to pick, and the choice of cesium oscillation seems pretty arbitrary in the grand scheme of things.

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