People like to shit on the imperial measurements for its inconsistensies, but why is it we have a similarly dogshit one for measuring time? - eviltoast

For example,

60 seconds = 1 minute

60 minutes = 1 hour

24 hours = 1 day

7 day = 1 week

29-31 days = Month (approx.)

365/366 days = year

It’s like for the imperial measurement of distance, where 1 mile = 5280 feet…

Edit: just to clarify, I’m more or less keen towards any consistent, decimal-based measurement systems like base-10 or base-12.

  • Munrock ☭@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 year ago

    It’s actually January and February that were added in. Before that, there was just this gap during the winter when they didn’t bother counting the passage of days until the start of spring was declared, in March. That’s also why February is the short month, as it was the last added and just used up the remaining days.

    • RedSquid@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 year ago

      There were also superstitions about February - due to its role as a time for ritual purification and cleansing, that made them reticent to add days to it, so it stayed at the bare 28