# Why isn't there metric time? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 22, 2005, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-there-metric-time/332191 "2005-11-22T02:27:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jasonh300](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/46a35a/32.png) [@jasonh300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasonh300)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-there-metric-time/332191/1 "2005-11-22T02:27:30Z")
I’ve always wondered about this, although I don’t really use the Metric System. The whole concept would be 100 seconds in a minute, 100 minutes in an hour, 10 hours in a day. Actually, I guess there would be millidays and so on. The new Metric second would be .864 of a normal second. The new Metric minute would be 1 minute and 26.4 seconds (in normal time). The new Metric hour would be 2 hours and 24 minutes long (in normal time). Noon would be 5 o’clock. Midnight would be 0 or maybe 10 O’clock. You’d have times like 8:75 which would be a quarter till nine…roughly 10 pm. 3:50 would be half past 3. Nine to Fivers would work 3:75 to 7:08. I realize this is a silly concept and pointless, but since they don’t teach kids to read the big hand and little hand anymore and it’s all gone digital, why not? Has anyone else ever come up with this idea or am I just crazy? ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-there-metric-time/332191/2 "2005-11-22T02:41:01Z")
> [@jasonh300](#): > > Has anyone else ever come up with this idea or am I just crazy? You are not crazy, just google impaired. 😛 [http://www.indwes.edu/Faculty/bcupp/things/metrictm.htm](http://www.indwes.edu/Faculty/bcupp/things/metrictm.htm) ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-there-metric-time/332191/3 "2005-11-22T02:47:09Z")
We’re already using Metric time. The basic unit of time in the Metric system is the second. What you’re proposing is _decimal_ time. It may have some advantages, but there’s really no need to create another standard for time because the whole world already uses the same system. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-there-metric-time/332191/4 "2005-11-22T02:54:24Z")
The unit of time in the metric system is the second. Whenever the rate of anything is measured in metric units, it’s so many somethings (meters, litres, kilograms, etc.) per second. For times shorter than a second, we’re already using metric: milliseconds, microseconds, nanoseconds, etc. I’ve seen some measurements using kiloseconds and once megaseconds. (Note that this concept is turned into the standard time-measuring system for a spacefaring culture in Vernor Vinge’s science-fiction novel _A Deepness in the Sky_. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-there-metric-time/332191/5 "2005-11-22T02:58:27Z")
> [@jasonh300](#): > > Has anyone else ever come up with this idea or am I just crazy? During the process of “rationalizing” measurements, the revolutionary government in France proposed this in the late 18th century. ([cite](http://zapatopi.net/metrictime/).) [Decimal clocks from that period exist.](http://www.antique-horology.org/_Editorial/RepublicanCalendar/default.htm) It’s been suggested at least annually ever since. In fact, it’s offered up about as often as predictions of the end of the world. Neither has ever happened. Neither ever will. As others have said, there is no good reason to do so, and the expense and inconvenience would be so enormous that it’s contraindicated. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-there-metric-time/332191/6 "2005-11-22T03:37:51Z")
I read some books by Vernor Vinge (his Zones of Thought books) where the time units were kiloseconds, megaseconds, etc. They didn’t use days, weeks, years, etc. This is science fiction where Earth as we know it is long gone and forgotten. At least I think it was those books…maybe someone will back me up as I don’t have them on me ATM. It seemed to work ok in the books, and I guess it would work for us as well, it’s just that it would be a hassle to switch. ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-there-metric-time/332191/7 "2005-11-22T05:00:34Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > We’re already using Metric time. The basic unit of time in the Metric system is the second. It seems like a bit of a copout to use the “regular” second for metric measurements, though. It’s an arbitrary length of time that isn’t related to any other metric unit, whereas the meter is derived from the circumference of the Earth, and the units for area, volume, and mass are based on the meter. The metric second should be something like the period of a 1-meter pendulum, or the length of time it takes for a dropped object to fall 1 meter. ---
**Author:** ![Southessex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Southessex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southessex)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-there-metric-time/332191/8 "2005-11-22T05:47:24Z")
This is officially the _stupidest_ idea I’ve ever heard. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-there-metric-time/332191/9 "2005-11-22T06:04:50Z")
> [@Ruken](#): > > I read some books by Vernor Vinge (his Zones of Thought books) where the time units were kiloseconds, megaseconds, etc. They didn’t use days, weeks, years, etc. This is science fiction where Earth as we know it is long gone and forgotten. His then-wife Joan used the same units in her short story _Mediaman_. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-there-metric-time/332191/10 "2005-11-22T06:53:30Z")
> [@Southessex](#): > > This is officially the _stupidest_ idea I’ve ever heard. Hey, stick around, it’s a pleasure to have your company. I’ll even pay your membership fee if you like. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-there-metric-time/332191/11 "2005-11-22T07:31:22Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > His then-wife Joan used the same units in her short story _Mediaman_. She also used it in _The Outcasts of Heaven Belt_ ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-there-metric-time/332191/12 "2005-11-22T08:38:05Z")
The thing is, whether it _should_ have been changed around or not, the second is now one of the fundamental units of the metric system. It’s one of the [seven basic units](http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/units.html) of the entire system, and if you redefine it now, you’d have to redefine pretty much the entire system. (Note that even one of the other basic units is now [defined in terms of the second](http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/current.html).) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-there-metric-time/332191/13 "2005-11-22T14:26:21Z")
Metric time was proposed back when the metric system was introduced. **Scientific American** ran an article about it a few decades ago, complete with engravings of Metric Clocks produced ro measure metric time. For some reason, it never caught on, even in France. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-there-metric-time/332191/14 "2005-11-22T14:37:00Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#): > > It’s been suggested at least annually ever since. In fact, it’s offered up about as often as predictions of the end of the world. > > Neither has ever happened. Neither ever will. Both of these seem to be rather big assumptions to make. I can pretty much guarantee that the end of the world will come. > [@Southessex](#): > > This is officially the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard. You have led the most sheltered life imaginable. Siddharta Gautama has nothing on you. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-there-metric-time/332191/15 "2005-11-22T14:47:05Z")
> [@jasonh300](#): > > I realize this is a silly concept and pointless, but since they don’t teach kids to read the big hand and little hand anymore and it’s all gone digital, why not? The problem with time, and the reason it resisted decimalization, is that nature saddled us with two incompatible standard units–the day and the year. The day measures the cycle of daytime and dark, and the year measures the cycle of the seasons. We can’t live without either one. Long periods of time are going to be measured in years, and shorter periods in days. If I told you something was going to happen a kiloday from now, your first thought would be, “What time of year will that be?” No doubt, we could decimalize the intermediate units. There’s no reason why hours, minutes, and seconds _couldn’t_ be decimal fractions of a day. But even if you do that, you’re stuck with the year for longer time scales–unlike the situation with respect to distance, where atomic to astronomical distances can all be measured in meters. Another factor is that the day and year are universal, so there was less local variation in Eighteenth Century time measures than in distance measures–and less pressure for a new standard unit. So for distance and mass, you could collapse a series of non-standard local measures into a new universal measure on one standard scale. For time, you’d be collapsing what was already a relatively universal measure into a new measure on _two_ standard scales (the day and the year). The benefits of the latter were, and are, less compelling. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-there-metric-time/332191/16 "2005-11-22T14:49:30Z")
[The Hexclock](http://www.intuitor.com/hex/hexclock.html). Of course, in an ideal world we’d all switch to base 30 (2 X 3 X 5). The additional prime factor would provide us more arithmetical tricks to ease multiplication and division. 30 hour days might be a drag though. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-there-metric-time/332191/17 "2005-11-22T15:16:38Z")
> [@Southessex](#): > > This is officially the _stupidest_ idea I’ve ever heard. Is that your official factual answer? ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-there-metric-time/332191/18 "2005-11-22T15:25:34Z")
> [@jasonh300](#): > > I’ve always wondered about this, although I don’t really use the Metric System. > > The whole concept would be 100 seconds in a minute, 100 minutes in an hour, 10 hours in a day. Actually, I guess there would be millidays and so on. > > The new Metric second would be .864 of a normal second. > > The new Metric minute would be 1 minute and 26.4 seconds (in normal time). > > The new Metric hour would be 2 hours and 24 minutes long (in normal time). That’s the model I went with. I referred to them as “millidays” rather than “metric minutes”, and “centimils” (hundredths of thousandths of a day) rather than “metric seconds”, but same diff. > [@](#): > > Noon would be 5 o’clock. Midnight would be 0 or maybe 10 O’clock. > > You’d have times like 8:75 which would be a quarter till nine…roughly 10 pm. 3:50 would be half past 3. > > Nine to Fivers would work 3:75 to 7:08. Why not dispense with the colon? If we’re going decimal-time here, now is 317.18094 (based on a start of day equivalent to 6 AM in conventional time, i.e., millidays since average sunrise). > [@](#): > > Has anyone else ever come up with this idea or am I just crazy? I had the conversion charts all worked out (in _both_ directions) and could convert in my head for awhile before my obsessive-compulsive brain switched to a different focus. Need I mention that me coming up with the same idea in no way rules out your being crazy, and might even indicate the opposite? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-there-metric-time/332191/19 "2005-11-22T15:39:20Z")
> [@Freddy the Pig](#): > > The problem with time, and the reason it resisted decimalization, is that nature saddled us with two incompatible standard units–the day and the year. Good point. And one year is close to 360 times as long as one day. This must have been irresistible to the Babylonians who used a 60-based numbe system. What is more natural than to divide time up in units of 60 and do that six times with 5 extra days of celebration of how clever we are. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-there-metric-time/332191/20 "2005-11-22T16:29:46Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > I had the conversion charts all worked out (in _both_ directions) and could convert in my head for awhile before my obsessive-compulsive brain switched to a different focus. Need I mention that me coming up with the same idea in no way rules out your being crazy, and might even indicate the opposite? 😉 Here, in case you ever wanna convert, you can use these resources for my equivalent system: [D-Time](http://www.tuftin.net/~bjornar/NoWhere/time.html). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-there-metric-time/332191.md?page=2)