Timezones

My shortest Navy Course:
https://www.militarynewbie.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/US-Navy-course-Time-Conversion-NAVEDTRA-14252.pdf

Good for one retirement point (IIRC) AND helpful for anyone who has ever filled out a government travel claim that crosses 180° east (or west).

......price we pay for living on a sorta-sphere....

 

that was a good one bob, i never heard any other variations.

 

I think we'd pay the same price if we lived on a perfectly-spherical sphere. More of a price we pay for wanting our clock time to remind us roughly where the sun is in the sky.

 

I just want it to be light all the time. No clock can fix that, unfortunately

 

We've got relations vacationing in Italy; I had to make a time conversion wheel...

 

Nice compass construction!

Since starting to use CAD, I've mostly forgotten how to do that.

 

I was going to crank one out in CAD, but this was arguably faster, more tactile, and more fun. It's evolving...

 

you should send one to putin

 

His best solution would be the Chinese plan: just one time zone for the whole country.

 

I live in Sydney. My parents, sister and other relatives and lots of clients are in Britain, nine hours behind me in Northern summer, 11 in winter, and 10 in October and April.

My staff are in Shanghai, two hours behind me in Northern summer and 3 in winter.

My clients are mostly in Britain, Singapore, Germany, South Korea, Japan, San Francisco, New York, Houston, DC and Perth.

And my other houses in Broken Hill are half an hour behind Sydney.

I don't think the wheel would work - I just have to have it all in my head.

----

Of course, none of this would ever stop my auntie in Scotland calling me after 6pm Glasgow time because she was waiting for the cheap call rates. Happy Birthday calls in the middle of the night when I lived in HK, Shanghai and here. Every year. "Happy birthday! What's the weather like over there?". "Dark."

 

It does mean that at some times of year it doesn't get light in Xinjiang until almost lunchtime, though.

 

"I just want it to be light all the time." No you don't! @bisco. Would mean tidal locking to sun with a dark side and a lit side on Earth, then with very unpleasant consequences.

Stopping earth rotation (for this) was one of HG Wells' wacky short stories (it was him, right? Jules Verne did not have that range of imagination).

There is no reason known to me that a tidally locked planet could not host life But it would not be pretty. Nice. Many adjectives are available.

==

Earth/Moon system usta have shorter day/night cycle. <18 hrs soon after Thera made a big splash? (Don't make me look that up). Earth is watery on surface and thus tidally draggy, So in long future will have longer day/night cycles. (Don't make me look that up either). All that means Earth/Moon distance will increase and there will be no more total solar eclipses ever. So sad.

==

But now, Russia is the largest longitude spanning country with many time zones. China is the second largest longitude spanning country but with only one time zone. Maybe you can win a bar bet with that info.

 

...

 

That seemed absurdly recent, so I had to look it up.

One article claimed that the a 19 hour 'day' was 1.4 billion years ago, though I wouldn't rely on its linear extrapolation as being particularly accurate. Another claimed that back when the moon was formed, a day was only 4 hours long, but had reached 18 hours by 2.5 billion years. But I'd have to read up more before on the topic before finding if there is any consensus on a timeline, and it is too late tonight to do that.

Regardless, I think it is clear that the era of when the day was <18 hours, was long long before Thera (or even the Mediterranean) was even created, whereas its big splash was within recorded human history. Shift the decimal point between 5 and 6 places.

EDIT: With a lunar tidal lock, we'll still get total lunar eclipses. And annual solar eclipses, such as coming up next month, though admittedly these are much less exciting than totals. And by the time of this lock, maybe the annular eclipses would better be described as transits than eclipses.

But just under half the planet would ever be able to see them. The other half would need to travel around for viewing.

With a solar tidal lock added in, the moon would be stuck near a Lagrange point.

 

Could we agree that when moon coalesced from impact debris after Theia impact (I wrongly wrote Thera) about 4.5 billion yrs ago, that it was closer to earth and larger in sky?

Could we agree that moon has receded from earth since then, and has become smaller in sky?

Could we agree that moon (size) now causes solar eclipses with some being total and others annular?

Could we agree that moon in past was closer to earth and made only total solar eclipses? With some of those being whoppers?

Could we agree that moon in future will be further from earth and will not make any more total solar eclipses?

 

Doesn't seem so absurd to me...
Leap_second

I've done more than a few leap second adjustments in the tiny fragment of time that I've been on this one little rock....
and....math.
There's only 31.5 million seconds in a year, and a BILLION is a lot.
(A trillion is even MORE.... )

"...But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing: that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day...."



A man was wandering in the woods pondering all the questions of life, the universe, and his own personal problems. The man could not find any answers so he sought help from God.

"God!? God?! Are you there God?!", he shouted.
God responded, "What is it my son?"
"God, what is a million years to you?"
God said, "a million years to me is only a second."
"Hmmm", he wondered. Then he asked again, "God, what is a million dollars worth to you?"
God said, "A million dollars to me is only worth a penny."
The man lifted his eyebrows and proceeded to ask a final question. "God can I have a penny?"
And God cheerfully said, "Sure!!.....just a second..."

 

Okay, I’d be happy with about 15 hours a day, like summer

 

You’d need to do the research/ math, move to an appropriate latitude, and “winter” at a similar latitude in the southern hemisphere.

like those Endless Summer guys.

 

...it only SEEMS longer......