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Tricked again? Yay or nay

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posted on Nov, 24 2009 @ 04:51 PM
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The whole reason the Julian calendar was even replaced by the Gregorian calendar is because of accuracy. The Gregorian was more accurate than the Julian and so the Gregorian should be replaced by this type of system which is also more accurate.

Yes, the Julian Calendar had been in place long enough to require adjustments.

But, the Julian to Gregorian episode doesn't rebut my basic contention that people will pay only for accuracy that pays back its cost. Skipping the leap day 3 out of 4 century years is about the smallest cost imaginable.

Those 10 or 11 "lost days" back then were to repair the drift already experienced, and could have been implemented while retaining the Julian calendar. Which would have worked fine for a while before it needed any further attention.

The switch was a separate issue, to buy "low hanging fruit" accuracy in the future.

If you want more accuracy, all you need to do is add a clause to the existing formula: Every 400 years, we blindfold somebody to pick one slip from a jar of 25 slips of paper, 3 of which are marked with an X. If an X is drawn, then the next special century year will not be a leap year.

It could hardly get any cheaper than that. Four centuries ought to be enough advance notice to prevent chaos in the calendar industry. We can auction off the right to perform the drawing, which should cover the entire cost of the "switch."

I am not a psychic. When the Gregorian errors finally add up to enough to justify attention, maybe people will switch over to something else entirely. I'll be long dead by then anyway, so it's all the same to me. But I doubt we will.

And if we do, then it won't be on account of average accuracy. Clearly, simply by changing the number of slips and the number of X's among them, we can nail the average year to any accuracy you'd like, while retaining worst-case errors of about a day or so.

[edit on 24-11-2009 by eight bits]



posted on Nov, 24 2009 @ 05:05 PM
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reply to post by eight bits
 


I think you're completely missing the intent of the proposal.

The Gregorian calendar would require a 1 day adjustment approximately every 3000 years. The proposed calendar system in the OP would require a 1 day adjustment approximately every 5000 years.



posted on Nov, 24 2009 @ 07:12 PM
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The Gregorian calendar would require a 1 day adjustment approximately every 3000 years. The proposed calendar system in the OP would require a 1 day adjustment approximately every 5000 years.

So what? Along the way, the Enoch proposal adds leap weeks - meaning its worst case error over spans of a few years is about seven times the Gregorian worst case error.

And if you're really serious about whole week years, then you're not going to be able to add that day in approximately 5000 years. You will have to let the drift error accumulate up to about 3.5 days, and then fix it. That's on top of the short-term error.

All I posted about was the false claim that there is some inherent difference in average accuracy. There isn't. Nor is average accuracy the only accuracy concern.

Beyond that, we're in subjective preference territory. You like 52 week and occasional 53 week years better than 365 day and occasional 366 day years, woohoo.

Good luck with it, but there's no use arguing about tastes, so let us agree to disagree, Agree2Disagree.

[edit on 24-11-2009 by eight bits]



posted on Nov, 25 2009 @ 12:38 AM
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Originally posted by eight bits

Good luck with it, but there's no use arguing about tastes, so let us agree to disagree, Agree2Disagree.

[edit on 24-11-2009 by eight bits]


Absolutely.


I was just curious, what is your take on Tracy Twyman's theory - 52 seconds 52 minutes 26 hours 52 weeks 13 months 91 days in a season 364 days in a year...? The excerpt can be found at the bottom of page 1.




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