Oddbean new post about login | logout Guy who invented the clock: there will be 12 numbers on it Friend: so the day will be divided into 12 segments? Inventor: no, 24 Friend: so will the day start at 1 Inventor: the day will start at the 12, which is at night Friend: Inventor: the 6 means 30 https://cdn.mastdn.ca/media_attachments/files/111/149/612/002/209/752/original/a7dc63a827dd99ef.png
@b541bfe5 I ctually use full-day clocks only...my wristwatch has a digital 24 hour face, andi have some phsyical watches with them... I also have another watch and a face, that has 8 numbers on the phase (makes a full turn 3 times a day).
@b541bfe5 That explains Y2K
The sun rises to its highest point and then sets, so it makes sense to split time in two parts. Think about ancient sun dials. 12 and 6 were common for other units of measure because of the way they divide evenly. 360 became a common division of angles because of how all the important angles (90, 45) were whole numbers with that division. 365 was the total number of days observed between the shortest and longest days, and 24 hour days were the set of divisions that won out. Even as later culture learned a year was really 365.24, the 24 division was kept, but with leap years/seconds added in. The current clock/calendar makes a lot of sense when you view it in terms of units that divide evenly into partitions of whole numbers.
@b541bfe5 holy crap this so smart how has no one thought of this before what backwards yokels everyone else in the entirety of history has been up until now
