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thegreekdog wrote:As I trudged into the elevator on my way to the office today, I contemplated why I was expected to work Monday through Friday?
And then I contemplated why there were Mondays and Fridays in the first place? Who determined that a week should be seven days and why?
And then I thought about who determined that a day is 24 hours and why?
And just when I started thinking about why someone decided on the amount of minutes in an hour, I got to my floor?
Metsfanmax wrote:thegreekdog wrote:As I trudged into the elevator on my way to the office today, I contemplated why I was expected to work Monday through Friday?
And then I contemplated why there were Mondays and Fridays in the first place? Who determined that a week should be seven days and why?
And then I thought about who determined that a day is 24 hours and why?
And just when I started thinking about why someone decided on the amount of minutes in an hour, I got to my floor?
42.
AndyDufresne wrote:I'll speak the the 24 hour day bit. I recall that a number of our precursor ancient civilizations were fond of counting things in base 12, instead of say in base 10. Now everyone in our modern era is left with a bit of a mish-mash of various counting methods jammed together, examples:
Base 6 (60 Seconds in a minute, etc)
Base 10 (So many things)
Base 12 (24 hours a day)
But mathematics and numbers have ever been a strong suit of mine, I just recall this from some history reading I think.
Edit: I turned to my trusty friend, Scientific American, and just located this article from a number of years ago. A fun read to give you some history and insight: Why is a minute divided into 60 seconds, an hour into 60 minutes, yet there are only 24 hours in a day?
--Andy
This division reflected Egypt's use of the duodecimal system--the importance of the number 12 is typically attributed either to the fact that it equals the number of lunar cycles in a year or the number of finger joints on each hand (three in each of the four fingers, excluding the thumb), making it possible to count to 12 with the thumb.
The concept of fixed-length hours, however, did not originate until the Hellenistic period, when Greek astronomers began using such a system for their theoretical calculations. Hipparchus, whose work primarily took place between 147 and 127 B.C., proposed dividing the day into 24 equinoctial hours, based on the 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness observed on equinox days.
Despite this suggestion, laypeople continued to use seasonally varying hours for many centuries. (Hours of fixed length became commonplace only after mechanical clocks first appeared in Europe during the 14th century.)
This changed in 1967, when the second was redefined as the duration of 9,192,631,770 energy transitions of the cesium atom. This recharacterization ushered in the era of atomic timekeeping and Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Interestingly, in order to keep atomic time in agreement with astronomical time, leap seconds occasionally must be added to UTC. Thus, not all minutes contain 60 seconds. A few rare minutes, occurring at a rate of about eight per decade, actually contain 61.
thegreekdog wrote:(5) Culture beats science again!This changed in 1967, when the second was redefined as the duration of 9,192,631,770 energy transitions of the cesium atom. This recharacterization ushered in the era of atomic timekeeping and Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Interestingly, in order to keep atomic time in agreement with astronomical time, leap seconds occasionally must be added to UTC. Thus, not all minutes contain 60 seconds. A few rare minutes, occurring at a rate of about eight per decade, actually contain 61.
thegreekdog wrote:Metsfanmax wrote:thegreekdog wrote:As I trudged into the elevator on my way to the office today, I contemplated why I was expected to work Monday through Friday?
And then I contemplated why there were Mondays and Fridays in the first place? Who determined that a week should be seven days and why?
And then I thought about who determined that a day is 24 hours and why?
And just when I started thinking about why someone decided on the amount of minutes in an hour, I got to my floor?
42.
Careful, jones may accuse Douglas Adams of being a toilet head.
thegreekdog wrote:Interesting. A few thoughts:
(1) My question is more to do with why do we still use these things a
AndyDufresne wrote:thegreekdog wrote:Interesting. A few thoughts:
(1) My question is more to do with why do we still use these things a
Probably because unless something is a dramatic improvement or invention, changing is too much work.
--Andy
thegreekdog wrote:]
(1) My question is more to do with why do we still use these things and not something else and not so much where they came from, but being the ex-history major that I am... er was... it is interesting.
thegreekdog wrote:I was hoping for a discussion of a revolution with respect to having to work five days in a row. I think that change would be too much work too though.
thegreekdog wrote:I was hoping for a discussion of a revolution with respect to having to work five days in a row. I think that change would be too much work too though.
thegreekdog wrote:While I acknowledge that a "real change" would be difficult, I do not think it would cause an uprising among the general public; in fact, I would suspect the general public would be in favor of a change in the way we work.
AndyDufresne wrote:thegreekdog wrote:While I acknowledge that a "real change" would be difficult, I do not think it would cause an uprising among the general public; in fact, I would suspect the general public would be in favor of a change in the way we work.
To what? Less than a 5 day work week in total, or just a segmented 5 day work week?
--Andy
thegreekdog wrote:AndyDufresne wrote:thegreekdog wrote:Interesting. A few thoughts:
(1) My question is more to do with why do we still use these things a
Probably because unless something is a dramatic improvement or invention, changing is too much work.
--Andy
I was hoping for a discussion of a revolution with respect to having to work five days in a row. I think that change would be too much work too though.
AndyDufresne wrote:TGD, set up an excel spreadsheet explaining your calendar and I'll pass it along to the UN.
--Andy
BigBallinStalin wrote:Would that change maximize profit?
thegreekdog wrote:While I acknowledge that a "real change" would be difficult, I do not think it would cause an uprising among the general public; in fact, I would suspect the general public would be in favor of a change in the way we work.
thegreekdog wrote:AndyDufresne wrote:TGD, set up an excel spreadsheet explaining your calendar and I'll pass it along to the UN.
--Andy
Thanks, but I wanted to get some consensus from CC denizens first.BigBallinStalin wrote:Would that change maximize profit?
Maximize profit for whom?
AndyDufresne wrote:TGD, can we have your cell phone to call you at midnight about concerned posts in the Off Topics?
Moreover, have anyone you ever worked a job where you had "whatever" hours? When I first employed by CC, I essentially had a "whatever" hours job, but as I started to take on more responsibilities, I moved into a set office time because I found I worked more efficiently that way, and I also found I enjoyed knowing when I would be done for the day too. Ha.
--Andy
thegreekdog wrote:Here's my skepticism on that score: The rise of computers, interwebs, etc. was supposed to make work it easier (and those advances have) and they were supposed to result in better flexibility. I would argue that computers, internet, email, mobile devices, and the like, have made work more time consuming. In the "good old days" when a person left work, he or she left work. In the modern era, work comes with you. It's not uncommon for me to get calls on my mobile phone at midnight from concerned clients or colleagues regarding a particular issue. In the past, the concerned party would have to wait for me to come into the office. It's not uncommon for teachers to get emails from concerned parents who may have just waited until parent/teacher night.
So, will the changing of a work week maximize profits? Don't know.
BigBallinStalin wrote:Of course, there may be the possibility of shaping your environment to your own demands. In some situations, you could create and enforce implicit rules like "not responding to work-emails after work-hours." In a sense, you can control the environment, or maybe you'll get fired.
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