Comment on Whoever invented the 12-hour clock never doubted that people will always know if it's day or night

Tuuktuuk@piefed.europe.pub ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

• procrastitron@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  100% This.

  Also, being an evolution of sundials is the reason all analog clocks move in the same direction.

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  • nandeEbisu@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    So you’re saying clockwise can also be called sundialwise?

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    • Tuuktuuk@piefed.europe.pub ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      At least some North American indigenous peoples say something akin to “with the sun”. And I think in yoga terminology they have a similar phrasing, or am I mistaken?

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  • sircac@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    I was answering about the Northern/Southern hemisphere logic of this… and realised that it depends if the sundial is vertical in a wall (facing South in the Northern hemisphere) or horizontal (facing the zenith/sky)… today you can easily find those wall sundials in many monumental buildings (at least these seem to me more common than the others) and the shadow is casted counterclockwise in the Northern hemisphere, so not sure if the clockwise sense was locked by this… also in the Southern hemisphere logic flips completely.

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    • Tuuktuuk@piefed.europe.pub ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      in the Southern hemisphere logic flips completely.

      In the southern hemisphere they think Australia is suitable for human life.

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• wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  I present to you, illuminated clocks!

  crowd gasps MY UNIVERSE IS COLLAPSING the crowd starts screaming and lighting things on fire

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  • Gathorall@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Your sundial still isn’t showing time.

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    • 0x0@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      It’s showing a time

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    • wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Clocks, not sundials

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      • moody@lemmings.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        The lights go out, and I can’t be saved
        Tides that I tried to swim against

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    • Tuuktuuk@piefed.europe.pub ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Depends on what you mean with “showing time”. They won’t be showing the correct time, that’s true. But.

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  • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    How are the illuminated clocks able to comprehend your presentation?

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    • wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Magic ✨

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• billbasher@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  I think their point was they picked 12 and not 24 or some other number to divide a circle by

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  • TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    That’s a Babylonian thing. They were obsessed with highly divisible numbers like, 12, 24 and 60. Basically the opposite of prime numbers, which are super annoying to divide. Babylonians wanted their numbers to as nice as possible when dividing. For example, 60 is particularly nice since it’s not absurdly large, but when dividing it, you have lots of options.

    All of this was long before the decimal point and calculators were invented, so divisibility was a big thing back then. Thanks to the babylonians, we have super messy time units now. Thanks to the Romans, we also have super messy units for length, weight and volume. That’s not a huge deal though, since basically nobody uses those any more.

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    • GraniteM@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Thanks to the Romans, we also have super messy units for length

      But we can still blame the British for the furlong.

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      • TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        According to that Wikipedia article:

        The furlong was historically viewed as being equivalent to the Roman stade (stadium), which in turn derived from the Greek system.

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    • Tuuktuuk@piefed.europe.pub ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      I wouldn’t blame the Babylonians for us breaking the good standard and going 58, 59, 60, 61, 62 instead of the 58, 59, 100, 101, 102 that works just fine. They were first, we are the ones who added a new system aside the old one instead of replacing it.

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      • TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        The French actually kicked out so much trash during the Revolution. Time units did stick around though, but at least they tried.

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    • billbasher@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Interesting, thanks for the detailed description!

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  • Tuuktuuk@piefed.europe.pub ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    If that was the case, we would now be talking about 48 h clocks vs. 24 h clocks.

    18:40 pm on the 24h clock would equal 36:40 on the 48 h clock.
    You would still not know whether it’s night or day just looking at the time.

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    • billbasher@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      You’re not wrong but the question is why?

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      • Tuuktuuk@piefed.europe.pub ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        Why what?

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