--- Fiona Moore nydersdyner@yahoo.co.uk wrote: > -- but
then again, was it an abstract standardised system, applicable to any/all planets (a sort of Galactic Metric?), or simply the Earth calendar used as standard? For that matter, how *would* one develop an abstract standardised system that could be used on all planets?
It's not my field, as they say, but as I understand it a day is the duration of a planet's rotation whilst a year is the amount of time a planet takes to orbit it's sun. I believe someone was mad enough a few years ago to experiment with 25 hour days but gave it up because he got depressed when the experiment obliged him to go to bed just as the sun was getting up.
If, however, one's citizens are confined to domes then you can make days and years any duration you want as their biological rhythms will adapt themselves eventually to the new system. In which case the Federation could impose a metric standardised calendar which would be applicable wherever one went. Or impose the earth calendar irrespective of the year/ day length of the planet one happens to be on.
Some sort of expedient like this would be inevitable if one was living on a planet like Venus where the day is longer than the year.
Stephen.
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