Re: units of measurement problems and solutions

Carl Dershem wrote:

Lucy Kemnitzer <ritaxis@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in news:i3pne11t6r4rmb3pafs4h98r0m37th28np@xxxxxxx:


Well, time, anyway. If your civilization is multiplanet -- or even
concentrated on some other planet with different periods than Earth's
-- you aren't necessarily going to have 24 hour days, 7 day weeks, 52
week years, right?  But maybe you aren't necessarily _not_ going to
have those either, if the civilization is derived from Earth and the
people are pretty conservative about this sort of thing.

So it leaves me unsure how to make the timelines and dialogs work out.
For _Esperanza HIghway_ I decided it was useful to the plot (such as
there was) to confront the different timekeeping on two planets --
there was a common calendar, but the exact day wasn't always in synch
(as it's frequently Monday for England when it's still Sunday for me).
And then there was the march of seasons on the planet of the story,
which did not correspond to the calendar dates, which meant that
calendar holidays showed up at different seasons and gave me
opportunities to develop little details and no wonder the book is so
long.

In the current book, though, I'm only dealing with about a third of a
planet, and I really don't want to get into figuring out the calendar
or the clock.  But I feel awkward about referring to seven day weeks
and 24 hour days, I really do, so I've ben vigorously suppressing
every instance where I might be tempted to do so.  In my timelines I
have numbered the years and days backwards and forwards from zero
points -- different timelines for different parts of the book.  And
I'm not talking about what time it is, ever.  "In the morning" or
"later, when it was really dark" is what I'm doing.  But I do worry
that this advanced-tech world with cultivated turf tarmac and living
walls could end up seeming very primitive in its timekeeping.

Short of vac*** the cat with a calendar and a clock, does anybody
have any suggestions for less clunky timekeeping?


YOu could always go with a world that, rather than generally settling on the standards we adopted, didn't. "Month" is derived from "moon cycle" and a lot of places used to dervice their calendard locally - "the 7th year of Herod 2's reign" and so on. Using some familiar terms like "hours" can work if you throw in a bit early on to make it clear they use a different hour - they have large time units that might or might not be the same as ours, and perhaps mark the change in a different way ("the fourth hour of the day" being the fourth hour of sunlight, and so on). SOmetimes throwaway lines help (I'll meet you at the second hour after sunset) work, sometimes they don't.

But for those of us who dont mind vacuuming the cat (I'm currently working on a muulti-planet book where only the Standard Second is a systemwide measure) it's hard to convey precision in a society without very precise measurement.

Maybe showing the precision some other way?

cd

When I was a kid I seem to remember some talk of using quasars to match time over interstellar distances. They evidently have a predictable cycle that is very long, so if you can *see* them, you can use their cycle to match your time to anybody who can also see one.

Hmm, I don't think that applies, and I'm now realizing I'm uncertain what you mean about conveying societal precision.

Bill

--
Bill Swears

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Ben Franklin, 1755 "Historical Review of Pennsylvania"

To think that was once a right wing comment. In the land of Homeland Security it seems.. Suspiciously left-wing.
.

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