How would time and date be calculated if...

[Aryanto]

Blame the babylonians!
They started all these funny numbering.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonia :beep:

But wiki teach me something new. That sexagesimal numbering is appealing not just because of the first 3 letter which comes first in mind the first time I heard about it (sex-a-what?) , but because the number 60 is easy to divide. ;)

It can be divided by (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, and 30).
You may argue that 100 is also easy to divide, but it is NOT easy to divide by 3. And did you see the sequence: 2,3,4,5,6...
May be that is the usual number of children, or number of wife :?:
Not sure if babylonian practice poligamy previously.

[weixing]

Hi,

Blame the babylonians!
They started all these funny numbering.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonia

But wiki teach me something new. That sexagesimal numbering is appealing not just because of the first 3 letter which comes first in mind the first time I heard about it (sex-a-what?) , but because the number 60 is easy to divide.

It can be divided by (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, and 30).
You may argue that 100 is also easy to divide, but it is NOT easy to divide by 3. And did you see the sequence: 2,3,4,5,6...
May be that is the usual number of children, or number of wife
Not sure if babylonian practice poligamy previously.

Err... are you a bit off topics?? It's ok to off topics a bit, but please don't wonder too far away from it... =P =P =P

Have a nice day.

[Airconvent]

you're right weixing..its getting off topic and cc will definitely frown on this!
so I'm shifting it to the coffee corner where everyone can continue to discuss to its logical conclusion...

[zong]

If there were 2 suns, we'd be nonexistent, so there wouldn't be any body to even talk about time and date. There is no known data showing that an Earth-like planet exists in a double-star system. The heat is just way too much, and the orbit for any planet that evolves (most likely a large planet of Jupiter size) would be a strange loop around both suns.

The time and date on Earth is really relative. Olden people chose 24 hours and 12 months because these numbers have the most number of factors amongst all the small numbers. Compare 12 (factors 1,2,3,4,6,12) and 10 (factors 1,2,5,10) and you understand. Time is in factor of 60 because it adds another prime number to its factors, that is, 5.

I did think of such a problem of double star system a few years back, but it seemed clear after quite some time of logical thinking that Earth cannot exist in such systems.

[wAi_kiT]

Hmmm... for the current technology, there's only planets greater than jupiter are detected for other stars like binary star system. But could it be due to our current technology, that we are unable to detect smaller masses planets, since they detect planets by gravity effects.

[Tachyon]

Currently, our technology is just beginning to detect planets around stars smaller than Jupiter-size. So I would still hold out hope for planets around double-stars. While it is true that the orbits of such planets, if they exist, would be erratic (and hence the 3-body problem) and unlikely to provide a stable environment for life, given that if the orbits of the two stars are very closely tied (so that in effect they behave as one body) and the planet far enough from the binary star, there is no reason to believe that *conditions* favourable for life can exist. Now, whether life exist there or not - that depends on God!

Cheers!

[AGMI]

:offtopic: about extrasolar planets, heres a good website, quite informative http://www.extrasolar.net/

[Aryanto]

aryanto said:
If our solar system is binary star (2 suns) then there will be no life on earth. It will be damn HOT! (and you guys including me like to complain that it is too hot in singapore). So the question about calendar is irrelevant. Nobody there to use it.

zong said:
If there were 2 suns, we'd be nonexistent, so there wouldn't be any body to even talk about time and date. There is no known data showing that an Earth-like planet exists in a double-star system. The heat is just way too much, and the orbit for any planet that evolves (most likely a large planet of Jupiter size) would be a strange loop around both suns.

Yay, 2 vote! :k-lol:

[soulfrost]

If there were 2 suns, we'd be nonexistent, so there wouldn't be any body to even talk about time and date. There is no known data showing that an Earth-like planet exists in a double-star system. The heat is just way too much, and the orbit for any planet that evolves (most likely a large planet of Jupiter size) would be a strange loop around both suns.

technically, imho , we will exist. just that we'll probably do things longer, have shorter life etc.

I did think of such a problem of double star system a few years back, but it seemed clear after quite some time of logical thinking that Earth cannot exist in such systems.

earth can exist. say, perhaps have a bigger orbit like that of plutos if we obit around 2 suns? there isnt much that's impossible.

[zong]

There's such a thing as the (shucks i forgot the name) habitable zone? It's a range of distances away from the sun where the temperatures allow water to be in the liquid state, hence allow life to form. a double-star system will wreck this zone by making it an "8" shape, or even a peanut shape if they're close enough. A planet cannot have such a strange-shaped orbit because it will eventually crash into either star, nor can it be far enough that it orbits in an elliptic because a far orbit would eventually swing it away by one of the star's gravity. It's a die or die situation. Even if there's actually a far orbit that can be stable, at least part of the time Earth will not exist in the "habitable zone", and that means ice age, and civilisation can't exist either. That's what i think. Abit confusing, because my thoughts are always like that ^^||