This new decimal time is not new except for the corporate logo. Check the start of any Star Trash episode. They start with the Stardate, or what astronomers call the Julian Date. As I write the Julian date is 241114.64823... days since noon at Greenwich on 1 Jan 4713 BC when all the cycles were aligned. Astronomers find this quite useful. The day starts at noon so the dates overnight are not confusing. Decimal time is easier for all of us with 10 fingers or toes to use for calculations.
Has anyone designed a Julian Day sundial recently? There is a challenge. I prefer the base 60 units defined for us by the ancient Babylonians. It works very well if you base your celestial math on a few simplifying assumptions. There are 360 solar days in the year, twelve 30 day lunar months, one radian = 60 degrees, Pi = 3.0, six perfect equilateral triangles fit exactly into a circle and celestial orbits are circular. The logic of the system is wonderful. Unfortunately nature messed up and the numbers are more like 365.25.., 27.68..., 57.29578..., 3.14159... etc. Maybe the decimal system has its merits after all. But not Swatch time. Julian Dates (Stardates) have already been invented. Roger Bailey N 51:05 W 114:22
