Eight Days a Week

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Nothing much to do with the Beatles’ song !

…

In the ongoing discussion about the Antikythera mechanism, I mentioned an interesting ‘find’ on the [very strange, and very gaudy] Fandom site.

Someone has proposed a Calendar in which there are eight days in each week, and four weeks in a month.

Successive years have either eleven or twelve months in them, and this lines everything up very neatly.

…

I am almost sure that there are Indian and Chinese calendars that perform similar tricks, but I am not sufficiently well-read to find them.

Can anyone advise, please ?

MichaelG.

.

Refs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fandom_(website)

https://calendars.fandom.com/wiki/8-days_a_week_simple_calendar

 

[FulmenParticipant @fulmen]

The math don’t add up on my calculator. The year is appr 365.25 days, your calendar ends up at 368 (8x4x11.5). With a 32 day month the average year will have to be 11.41 months.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Sorry, I should evidently have been more explicit …

The author states [my emboldening]

The 352 Or 384 Day Calendar is a calendar that has 32 days in each month, and 11 or 12 months in the calendar. There are 352 days in a normal year, but every 8 years, there is an extra month, making the calendar 384 days long. This calendar is also a lunar calendar.

In every month, the 1st month is a New Moon, the 11th day is the half moon, 21st day is the full moon, and then the 32nd day is the last day before the New Moon.

 

The 12th and extra month is called Additiacius.

 

In this calendar, there are 8 days in a week, or 44 or 48 weeks average in a year.

 

The first day of a month is always Sunday.

.

… I was lazy, and just referenced the page.…

It’s really the concept of adding  a complete month that interests me.

MichaelG.

[FulmenParticipant @fulmen]

Ah. So not really better, just different.

The shifting months would be a problem to most I think. We like to reference specific times of the year, hard to do if the month isn’t there half the time. Although it would only be a problem at the end of the year…

[V8EngParticipant @v8eng]

Time goes past much too rapidly already without any further messing with calendars.

As to remembering which day of the week it is as soon as I wake up that’s a non starter as well😉

[Fulmen]

On Fulmen Said:

Ah. So not really better, just different.

[…]

and possibly … just possibly … a concept included in the Antikythera mechanism

It’s that whimsical notion which started me looking, but I thought it better to start this new topic instead of adding more ‘noise’ to the Antikythera discussions.

MichaelG.

[Dod MoleParticipant @georgeclarihew]

Why not go the whole hog and go to metric time, 10 hours in a day, 10 days in a week, 10 months in a year.

I am sure it could easily work.

Surely a much better than current 60, 60, 24, 7, 29 or 30 or 31, 12 based mess of a system we work at present.

 

[Harry WilkesParticipant @harrywilkes58467]

All this talk of extra day.s is somewhat concerning as I struggle to remember what day it is with 7 😉

H

[V8EngParticipant @v8eng]

Let’s just go back to nature: get up when it’s light, go to bed at dark, grow crops in the right seasons👹

Mankind invented clocks anyway🤐

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

Best of luck getting an 8 day week past trade unions, unless of course it was an extra day at the weekend. Where I last worked they had switched from a 5 day 37 hour week to a 4 day 35 hour week,but tea break stopped. It was generally agreed that the same wor was being done, and the workforce were happier

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

In ancient Greece each city state started the the new month when the full moon was SEEN. If it was cloudy the moon could not be seen maybe for a day or two. So cities might end up out of step and historical events (battles, deaths etc) could be recorded on different dates by historians in the different cities.

[V8Eng]

 

On V8Eng Said:

…

Mankind invented clocks anyway🤐

And time too. Or at least the linear version of it.

 

[duncan webster 1]

On duncan webster 1 Said:

Where I last worked they had switched from a 5 day 37 hour week to a 4 day 35 hour week,but tea break stopped. It was generally agreed that the same wor was being done, and the workforce were happier

Now there’s a thought. Get rid of the tear room here and we may see ome more workshop action 😈

[JasonB]

On JasonB Said:Now there’s a thought. Get rid of the tear room here and we may see ome more workshop action 😈

But then where would people put their ‘sob-stories’ ?

MichaelG.

.

Incidentally, my question was not a Tea Room Topic

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, there was an article in my news feed a few days ago, about the Moon drifting away from us, and it’s doing it at a faster rate now, I didn’t read the whole thing, but the gist of it was the Earth days will be getting longer, so who knows what might may happen, but don’t hold your breath, as anybody living today will not be around when it happens. I think the idea of metric time was thought about back in the 60’s / 70’s, but for some reason or other it just wouldn’t work, and as we know, the faster you travel, the slower time passes, so for someone on a moving train, time will be slower for them, than someone waiting at a railway crossing for it to pass. Even Einstein had a bit of trouble with time. Apparently, if you were able to travel at the speed of light, time would stop altogether, and you would get no further forward.

Years ago in my old job, we gave up our afternoon tea break for an extra increase in wages, but after a year or two, most drifted back into having one, and it came to the point where every one was stopping for an afternoon tea break, and so we sold it a second time, but on the proviso that we wouldn’t then return to having afternoon tea breaks again, but they would allow us to go and make a drink and bring it back and drink it on the job, and they also had a vending machine, put outside the canteen, with cold drinks in it, as all canteen facilities were finished after the dinner break, and to be fair, it did work well, but the canteen finished altogether a year or so later, due to the lack of use.

Regards Nick.

[V8Eng]

On V8Eng Said:

Let’s just go back to nature: get up when it’s light, go to bed at dark, grow crops in the right seasons👹

Mankind invented clocks anyway🤐

Therein lies the problem. You need a functional calendar to track the seasons in order to plant crops at the right time.

regards Martin

[Martin Kyte]

On Martin Kyte Said:

On V8Eng Said:

Let’s just go back to nature: get up when it’s light, go to bed at dark, grow crops in the right seasons👹

Mankind invented clocks anyway🤐

Therein lies the problem. You need a functional calendar to track the seasons in order to plant crops at the right time.

regards Martin

I cannot help but think that crops could be sown according to day length and the natural changes in weather/temperature, I guess you could call that natures calendar.
Before industrialisation started climate change that is.

[V8Eng]

On V8Eng Said:

On Martin Kyte Said:

On V8Eng Said:

Let’s just go back to nature: get up when it’s light, go to bed at dark, grow crops in the right seasons👹

Mankind invented clocks anyway🤐

Therein lies the problem. You need a functional calendar to track the seasons in order to plant crops at the right time.

regards Martin

I cannot help but think that crops could be sown according to day length and the natural changes in weather/temperature, I guess you could call that natures calendar….

Yes, but farmers need to prepare in advance.  Ploughing, bags of seed, labour, all have to be organised.  Much simpler and far more efficient for farmers to work from a calendar than to measure day length!

Dave

 

[Nicholas Farr]

On Nicholas Farr Said:

I think the idea of metric time was thought about back in the 60’s / 70’s, but for some reason or other it just wouldn’t work

French Revolutionary Time officially began on November 24, 1793 although conceptual work around the system had been going on since the 1750s. So that would be the 1760’s / 70’s I presume!!

Decimal time was a 10-hour day, with 100 minutes per hour, and 100 seconds per minute.  It was never successful.

[V8Eng]

On V8Eng Said:

On Martin Kyte Said:

On V8Eng Said:

Let’s just go back to nature: get up when it’s light, go to bed at dark, grow crops in the right seasons👹

Mankind invented clocks anyway🤐

Therein lies the problem. You need a functional calendar to track the seasons in order to plant crops at the right time.

regards Martin

I cannot help but think that crops could be sown according to day length and the natural changes in weather/temperature, I guess you could call that natures calendar.
Before industrialisation started climate change that is.

It’s more the challenge of getting crops to ripen at an opportune part of the year. Late sown crops won’t ripen and you really want to get your grain crops havestable in the dry  season. Farming is challenging even today without not knowing where you are in the seasonal cycle.

regards Martin

[duncan webster 1]

On duncan webster 1 Said:

Best of luck getting an 8 day week past trade unions, unless of course it was an extra day at the weekend. Where I last worked they had switched from a 5 day 37 hour week to a 4 day 35 hour week,but tea break stopped. It was generally agreed that the same wor was being done, and the workforce were happier

When I first started on Post Office Telephones back in ’79 we had a 9 day fortnight 37½ hour week.
It was still classed as experimental, but kept on as it was found to be more efficient, reduced sick leave/special leave etc.
We eventually changed to a 36 hour 4 day week, which again was popular with workers and statisticians.
For several years I worked a 3 day 36 hour week; since our working day included travelling to and from site, I was far more efficient in work output and used less diesel etc.
Best hours I’ve ever worked.

[Author]

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