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Questions tagged [time-keeping]

For questions about systems used to distribute time into certain periods adapted to the purposes of common life, as hours, days, weeks, months, years, etc.

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Would the period of a binary planetary system have any reason to fit evenly in with the orbital period around its star?

I'm worldbuilding a binary planetary system - the orbit of the system around the star can be slightly elliptical, but I'd prefer only slightly. The star mass is ~0.72 solar mass, and the two planets ...
Max Bird's user avatar
  • 1,092
0 votes
2 answers
96 views

What would happen if there were nine lunar cycles in a year? [closed]

I'm working on an alternative Earth, where (at least) one country would divide the ~365-day year into nine months of approximately 40 days, and I would like the months to be calculated according to ...
Vilma's user avatar
  • 27
1 vote
0 answers
88 views

I may have made an error in calculating my spin-orbit resonance

I have a very warm planet named Phoenix I'm worldbuilding that's 1.2 times the mass of Earth, with a density somewhat smaller at 5.2 g/cm^3, orbiting at a distance of 0.1 AU from it's star in 10.2 ...
GJC's user avatar
  • 47
0 votes
4 answers
147 views

Given the following planetary conditions, what would be the exact length of a year?

List of conditions: it's an earth-size planet it's located in a binary star system, where both suns have the same size and mass the summed up mass of both suns is equivalent to that of our sun yes, ...
L. A Knight's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
230 views

How would be a Lunisolar Calendar with 2 Moons?

The world I'm building it's a Super-Earth named Tempus, and it has 2 moons in an orbital resonance. One of the moons, named Tidra Moon, is closest to the planet and basically has the same influence on ...
JahJahs's user avatar
  • 71
4 votes
4 answers
1k views

Moon calendar with a permanent full Moon

The Situation This can be considered a continuation of the following question: Permanent Full moon via "Magic" In this question I asked how a permanent full moon could be possible. While I ...
Fallenspacerock's user avatar
4 votes
3 answers
574 views

I need to know day/night cyles of a moonplanet

My moon planet is the moon to a gas giant in the habital zone of its red giant star, orbiting the same distance the earth orbits the sun. It is not tidally locked, being in opposite rotation of its ...
SRL's user avatar
  • 41
2 votes
2 answers
262 views

A calendar/timekeeping system based only on the stars?

I'm playing with an otherwise earthlike world where I have handwaved away the visible sun and moon: anytime you look at a cloudless sky, you see stars, and only stars. How can the people of this world ...
RLoopy's user avatar
  • 1,000
21 votes
9 answers
4k views

What can be used as a galaxy-wide time reference?

Assuming... ...intelligent civilisations exist throughout the entirety of the Milkyway galaxy, and these civilisations wish for some kind of common time reference, a GTC — Galactic Time Coordinated — ...
MichaelK's user avatar
  • 44k
7 votes
7 answers
2k views

Do (supermassive) black holes rotate? [closed]

Premise Trying to come up with a way to have a galactic unified time/date system, I turned my eye on the sidereal rotation period of, for example, the Sun, or, on the desired larger scale, Sagittarius ...
MarsMagnus's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
148 views

how would you measure a year on a disk-shaped world that doesn't revolve? [closed]

For the sake of clarity, I mean a fantasy world rather than a science fictional one. It has a moon, a sun and stars, though not stars as we would know of them. Rather, saints who have ascended into ...
user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
264 views

What would a billion years feel to an immortal human or alien? [closed]

Let’s say human lifespan could be extended indefinitely and we could live for billions of years. We also figured out Neurocybernetics and more efficient data storage to augment our memory storage ...
Max's user avatar
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2 votes
2 answers
200 views

If Earth were located at 1.1 AU from the Sun, would this affect the two zenithal passage days in the Tropics?

I am designing calendrics for an Earth-like planet located 1.1 AU from a Sun-like star. On Earth, on April 30th and August 13th, the Sun appears to pass directly overhead between the Tropics of Cancer ...
JM Yaden's user avatar
  • 305
6 votes
3 answers
1k views

Is it reasonable to use the rate of radioactive decay as a new way of measuring time

The unit of measurement known as a Curie(after Pierre and Marie Curie) measures the rate of decay of Ra-226 in one second. It was originally measured at 3.7x10^10 decays per second. It has been more ...
Martamo's user avatar
  • 986
11 votes
9 answers
4k views

Could a society develop without any time telling device?

Background:As humans throughout history, we've been trying to make a time telling device. It makes sense, too, you'd want to know what time to plan and arrive at certain events. With that in mind, let'...
EducatedScribbles's user avatar
4 votes
15 answers
6k views

How do I divide a year into months?

In my story, I have an alien planet with a long and eccentric orbit that takes 1018 days. Now I'm trying to make a calendar out of it, dividing these 1018 days into shorter time units - months (...
Krišjānis Liepiņš's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
162 views

How many days in a week, and weeks in a month, would be needed for this specific lunar cycle?

So, this world has three moons. Blue, Red, Yellow. There are eight months in the year. Each month has a unique "full moon" combination resulting in a different colored sky. That is the ...
Orion's user avatar
  • 172
2 votes
1 answer
394 views

Calculating a metonic cycle

How one can calculate a metonic cycle based on arbitrary values of the solar year length and the moon's orbital period? I'm gathering information required for calendar-making, and right now I'm stuck ...
Felix.leg's user avatar
  • 123
10 votes
3 answers
2k views

How do you prove the age of a time capsule?

There is the classic trope of a kidnapping victim posing for a photo with today's newspaper to prove they still live, or a time traveller correctly announcing Solar Flares before they happen to prove ...
Kyyshak's user avatar
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9 votes
14 answers
3k views

Is it plausible for a world without an external universe to develop a year system?

I'm currently in the phase of planning a time system for my world and I am starting to run into logistical issues. My world essentially is an island in an endless ocean. No universe, no rotation of ...
violetorigin's user avatar
2 votes
3 answers
240 views

Would it make sense for an Interstellar government to use the half life of common radioactive elements as a measure of time? and to make calendars? [closed]

For example, can we use the half life of Polonium or Uranium to measure time and produce something similar to a calendar?
spaceamoeba1010's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
177 views

Navigation and time-keeping on a slow spinning planet

I'm working on a story set on a planet that spins very slowly. Days and nights last years, and since it's either scorching hot or freezing cold, people, animals and all living beings must travel ...
MoholyNagy's user avatar
  • 1,151
3 votes
3 answers
371 views

How fast and how coarse does a sandstorm need to be to sand a human down to nothing in the span of an hour?

I am designing a world with extreme weather, which uses human survivability as a measure of time. I've equated something close to an hour for the time I am using, for simplicity's sake, but this poses ...
Quinn's user avatar
  • 1,216
5 votes
4 answers
1k views

How can a mechanical clock be powered by wind in a reliable, constant way?

Picking up the context This is a follow-up question to the technologically accurate watermill clock, available here. In this case, we're not using water to make clocks, but wind! Wind will be the ...
Tortliena - inactive's user avatar
6 votes
5 answers
351 views

How can I make a technologically correct horizontal watermill clock?

Context As I was working on some mechanical ideas (and practicing art), I wanted to see how to render time in creative ways. So I decided to make an horizontal watermill akin to a turbine, which has ...
Tortliena - inactive's user avatar
5 votes
3 answers
137 views

Would an extra-terrestrial human settlement rely on their endogenous or environmental rhythmic cycles to set their routines?

Setting: We have settled a planet with days and years not even approximately like earth. The settlers must decide what their workday is and their week, year, etc. Premise: Colonists will establish ...
Vogon Poet's user avatar
  • 8,209
5 votes
11 answers
467 views

Awaken after millions of years of spacetravel, what day is today, what time it is and to where should I look at? [closed]

Bob is a 30 years old man who has a religion, called Bobism that is a particular blend of Judaism, Islamism, Christianism, Buddhism, Madeupism and Wtfism. Bob is a strict rigorous practizer of Bobism. ...
Victor Stafusa's user avatar
12 votes
8 answers
3k views

How would an underground society measure time? [duplicate]

I have a very mind-boggling question about time reckoning. I have a race of Dwarves, that at the very beginning of their history lived only underground and were forbidden to reach the surface. They ...
Faegir Dariusson's user avatar
12 votes
15 answers
3k views

How do Time Keepers log their diaries?

Set in distant future, a group of super advance civilization formed a special task force to observe and guard timelines, and they are called Time Keepers. The Time Keepers will scan for spacetime ...
user6760's user avatar
  • 48.1k
2 votes
8 answers
725 views

Time keeping across several star systems [duplicate]

I'm working on a storyline where humanity has spread across a handful of star systems via a device that basically teleports a ship from one system to the next. I have worked out some scientifically ...
Steven R. Hoag's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
189 views

How Should I Make a Calendar for Trappist-1

Alright, so I have already asked a few questions about this system, but this is the most important one. Firstly, I am needing to see if I got a relatively simple math problem right, and then I need ...
skout's user avatar
  • 2,086
6 votes
5 answers
587 views

underwater calendar for merfolk?

In the world I'm creating, I have merfolk who have human-level intelligence, live in pods/tribes of 10-50 (but are connected to each other and trade and exchange information frequently). Most worship ...
Ren's user avatar
  • 121
2 votes
5 answers
437 views

Would Moons of a gas giant appear to phase when looking at them from another, tidally-locked Moon?

I'm designing a fantasy world on a tidally-locked moon of a gas giant. Because it's primarily a medieval fantasy set on the outward-facing side of the home moon, I'd like to keep units of time similar ...
xeg0's user avatar
  • 23
-1 votes
4 answers
308 views

What percentage of teleporters would a world with teleportation need, before timezones are required?

"Arrive at 3pm" "Wait, is that 3pm your time, my time or the destination time?" "Destination time, it's when the Wizard bar opens at hub-city" "When is that for me?&...
AncientSwordRage's user avatar
-3 votes
1 answer
92 views

Does anyone know how I can convert the time of my conworld into earth hours/days and vice versa? Is there a converter or formula I could use? [closed]

I try to find out how long the years/days/hours in my conworld would be compared to those of Earth. So here is some information about the conworld's time measures: 100 (earth)seconds = 1 (conworld)...
Mr. Nefelibata's user avatar
0 votes
6 answers
401 views

In what way could a moon change phases according to the month?

Let’s say that a planet has multiple moons, and because I don’t want to type “a planet” many times, let’s call the planet Stan. One of these moons changes phase (“phase” being the best word for it, ...
Bill's user avatar
  • 99
7 votes
4 answers
656 views

Synchronized Galactic Timekeeping [duplicate]

I have some ideas for how to synchronize a galactic time system given the constraints of modern physics. However, my understanding of relativity is pretty limited so I was hoping for feedback or ...
Bert Haddad's user avatar
  • 3,569
4 votes
3 answers
193 views

Calendar with seven magical moons

My magic system is dependent on the moons; whichever moons are in the sky dictates what magic you can use, so the moons and their places in the sky are very important. The problem is, there are seven ...
Username reset's user avatar
34 votes
20 answers
7k views

My planet has a long period orbit. How can I make the seasons change faster in order to shorten the length of a calendar year on it?

I wanted a habitable planet around a binary star system, so I conjured up a system that let me have one. The problem that I'm facing is that the goldilocks orbital parameters for this planed ended up ...
Darth Biomech's user avatar
4 votes
5 answers
1k views

Chaotic World: Calendar and Events

Environment There exists a strange dimension called the Margins of Reality. All supernatural things in the world come from here and are caused by what the natives call "Margin Spirits." In ...
Frostfyre's user avatar
  • 25.2k
5 votes
6 answers
257 views

How would a civilization of cave-dwelling cats track dates? [duplicate]

I am in a slight dilemma. I have a civilization of cave-dwelling cats, that has been mentioned in numerous questions before this one. They have human intelligence, and they don't leave the caves. I ...
Jay's user avatar
  • 1,063
0 votes
0 answers
44 views

Single Time Zone in a Galaxy [duplicate]

This follows up the Single Time Zone on a spherical planet. Suppose now we have many habitual planets in a Solar system or in a Galaxy. How does it work to set up a Universal Time? Will it be ...
annie marie cœur's user avatar
23 votes
11 answers
6k views

Martians want to keep their weeks roughly in sync with Earth. How would they do that?

The Martian Sol is 24 hours and 37 minutes long, so daytime at a fixed point on the planet's surface will drift in and out of sync with a fixed point on Earth's surface, and keeping the tradition of a ...
Beefster's user avatar
  • 2,823
4 votes
3 answers
843 views

How to calculate the time on planet B for an event that happened on planet A?

We have had a number of "universal time" questions on this site — basically the various OPs have been looking for a way to establish a single time reference for the galaxy. I believe that's ...
JBH's user avatar
  • 132k
21 votes
13 answers
4k views

What reason would an extraterrestrial civilization have to adopt Earth's time measurement units?

I'm developing a game that mostly takes place in a universe different from Earth's. In fact, the game has many other universes as well, each with different date/time systems (as opposed to Earth's ...
Nuclear Applejack's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
146 views

Starting the year with september equinox

I know of several historical and fictional traditions which use spring equinox as a way to sync their calendars with the solar year, starting a new year on (or around) March 20. Are there are any ...
user avatar
6 votes
5 answers
2k views

Timeline Building Tool/Software for parallel timelines

This is my first post on this site. I have done some searching here and elsewhere and was unable to find an answer, so here goes: I'm working on a story that exists both in real-world Earth and a ...
Eligun108's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
2k views

Is there a website that will allow me to create a fictional calendar?

Is there a website that will allow me to create a fictional calendar? I have already created the actual system, named the months, days of the week, and so on, but I would like to create an actual ...
Amber Blue's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
267 views

How can I calculate and create a calendar for one of 4 moons of a Jupiter-like planet?

The planetary system I'm creating is a large Jupiter-like planet with four moons. I've based them on the Galilean moons. The story initially takes place on the outer most moon. The magic system ...
LAnne's user avatar
  • 41
3 votes
2 answers
81 views

Tidally locked time keeping 2 [duplicate]

I have done some research and so much contradict one another or I simply fail to understand. Can a moon be used as accurate time keeping and is it possible for it to revolve around the planet once an ...
Mister Onion's user avatar