The clocks go forward this weekend, maybe for the last time ever if the recent vote by the European parliament becomes law. Here’s an article I did on the topic of Time. Click below to see the article as it appeared in magazine format or keep scrolling for a text only version.
A Question of Time – Tempus Fugit
A Question of Time – Tempus Fugit: Text only version
Tempus Fugit.
We live in a digital world where metric ‘kilos’ are fast-replacing ‘pounds’. Yet time is still being recorded on an irregular calendar. Why? And who is responsible for seconds, minutes and a week being 24/7?
Today we know that the Earth takes 365 and 1/4 days to complete one orbit of our sun, a solar year. This is why we need leap year’s every 4 years in order to balance out the spare quarters.
The list below shows the length of time it takes the other planets in our Solar System to complete their year. As you travel further from the sun, the length of the orbit grows and therefore the year too is longer.
The length of a year on each planet is:
Neptune – 165 years
Uranus – 84 years
Saturn – 29.4 years
Jupiter – 12 years
Mars – 687 Days
Earth – 365.25 Days
Venus – 225 Days
Mercury – 88 Days
A day on each planet is calculated by measuring the time it takes a planet to complete a rotation on its axis through 360°. But you might be surprised by how long a day on each of these planets actually lasts.
The length of a day on each planet is:
Mercury 1,408 Hours
Venus 5,832 Hours
Earth 24 Hours
Mars 25 Hours
Jupiter 10 Hours
Saturn 11 Hours
Uranus 17 Hours
Neptune 16 Hours
But how do we further divide days and years?
Having established how a day or a year is calculated we move on to how they are measured. In a digital world, where the majority of our day to day life is measured in multiples of 10, why is it that a year is divided into twelve months? Why are there 24 hours in a day? To understand how we measure time we have to go back over 3,000 years to the Phoenicians.
Who first decided how we should measure time?
The Phoenicians called modern day Syria their home and were renowned traders. There is evidence that they were regular visitors to the British Isles where they traded for tin. The Phoenicians were among the earliest astronomers and used the stars to navigate. A navigational tablet would have been a prized and vital tool for any sailor. It was the Enigma machine of its day and gave the Phoenicians their edge.
The Phoenicians became the middlemen that enabled trade between the various countries they visited. As they were the common link between nations, it stands to reason that the Phoenician methods of measuring and even of communication would be adopted by those nations. While the Phoenicians all but vanished from existence in around 500 BCE, their skills as astronomers, navigators and traders have left a lasting legacy. Today, the entire world calculates time using the methods and the measurements that were developed by the Phoenicians in 1,500 BCE.
As traders, the Phoenicians developed a maths system to measure things, but they did not use fractions. They decided to use a duo-decimal maths system, based around the number 12. It gave them more flexibility to divide cargo.
Using 12 as the base number, items can be divided into half units (6), quarter units (3), one third units (4), one sixth units (2) and one twelfth units (1).
With the number 10 it can only be divided by 5 and by 2, therefore items can only be classed as whole units (10), half units (5), one fifth units (2) and one tenth units (1).
This is the reason the number 12 became so significant. The Phoenicians applied this system to their measurement of time as they divided both their days and their nights into 12 units each. This is the origin of our 24 hour day.
After the number 12, the next significant number for the Phoenicians was 60. It is thought that the origin lies in an early sign language, similar to the that used by bookies at modern day race tracks. A ship’s captain could communicate with a harbour master on the dock. If he held up his hand it meant 5 (fingers) times 12 – indicating 60. If he flashed his hand 5 times it meant 5 times 60 – or 300. This is why we have 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour.
But when it came to other measurements, the Phoenicians were often guilty of making their maths fit the problem.
The equilateral triangle has 3 equal sides and 3 equal angles. All are measured at 60°, as per the Phoenician’s maths. No problem there. The Phoenicians then saw that six equilateral triangles could be laid together to form the centre of a circle. They saw that 6 x 60 = 360, which is why circles contain 360°. So far, so good. The problems arose when the Phoenicians tried to apply their maths to the universe. They made the facts fit the figures. Because the Phoenicians were so proud of their maths they assumed that a year must also measure 360 days.
The 12 lunar cycles in most calendar years also fit neatly with Phoenician maths and are the basis for our 12 months.
Each lunar cycle has 4 phases. On average, each phase lasts 7 days. This is the basis for our 7 day week.
So far, we have explained the origin of:
60 seconds in a minute
60 minutes in an hour
24 hours in a day
7 days in a week
4 weeks in a month
12 months in a year
But why do we still use these measurements today when so much else of our history has changed? We need to look at who followed the Phoenicians.
When the Phoenicians were conquered by Alexander The Great it started the Greek Empire’s dominance of the Mediterranean.
The Greeks adopted much of the culture of the nations it conquered and adapted it to create their own history. For example, the Phoenician and Babylonian God ‘Baal’ was changed to become the Greek’s ‘Zeus’. But the one thing that the Greek’s would not change was the Phoenician technique for navigation. In order to use Phoenician navigation which was determined by the position of the stars at different times of the year, the Greeks had to use the Phoenician calendar.
However, the Greeks knew that the figure of 360 days in a year could not be right. But rather than start everything again from scratch, they chose a simpler solution.Greek history was recorded in four year terms called Olympiads. Every four years, when they held their Olympics, they reset the calendar to account for the missing days.
The Greek empire subsequently fell to the Romans. Just as the Greeks had done before them, the Romans adopted and adapted Greek ideology, theology and science. For example Zeus became Jupiter, Ares became Mars and Poseidon became Neptune.
The Romans also adopted the Phoenician / Greek calendars. But they too realised that there was an issue with regard to missing days. As a result, the Romans had a flexible approach to calendars. Their months were divided into sections like ’Nones’ and ’Ides’, and each year their astronomers would move the length of months around to suit their calendar. It meant that the number of days in each month would vary from year to year. Like the Greeks, the Romans ‘reset’ their calendar every four years. A four year ‘Imperium’ was the term of office for their elected officials.
The Roman or Julian calendar (named for Julius Caesar) despite its numerous flaws, was still widely used for centuries. Over time the Gregorian calendar was gradually adopted by different nations. Initially this caused much confusion, for example, the Russian ’October’ revolution of 1917 would have been the UK’s breaking news in March 1917. Turkey was the final country to adopt the Gregorian calendar in 1927. But while the calendar may have changed, the units of seconds, hours, days, weeks and months are still the intellectual property of Phoenicia.
