Can you answer this?

zoro

I was just wondering today - why are there 7 days in a week and not 6? or 8?

Can anyone here answer this without a "Just 'cause"?

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

it's to do with the sun.. and spinning..

KTRIC

Back in March 1862 it was decided by some guys down the pub, they were drunk so nobody argued with them, stayed the same ever since.

solicitous

zoro wrote:

I was just wondering today - why are there 7 days in a week and not 6? or 8?

Can anyone here answer this without a "Just 'cause"?

Holey moley.. *Cue the bible crunchers..*

danniemcq

did it not date back to Roman times and 7 was one of their numbers???

Binomate

danniemcq wrote:

did it not date back to Roman times and 7 was one of their numbers???

7 is one of our numbers as well.

Is there a number system used in the calender with a radix of 7 or something?

Rabies

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Days_of_the_week

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

from: http://www.indepthinfo.com/weekdays/theweek.shtml :


Why Are There Seven Days in a Week?

It is conjectured that the seven day week as we know it was developed by the Babylonians over 3000 years ago. Historians believe that the Babylonians were avid astronomers. They based many of their mathematical systems (including their calculations of time) on the movement of the heavenly bodies. The first convenient division of time to be devised (after the day) was the month because it could be tracked by observing the cycles of the moon. It was at some point deemed convenient by Babylonian scholars to find a division of time greater than the day and shorter than the month. The big problem was that a cycle of the moon lasted about 29 and a half days. No round number of days divides evenly into 29 and a half - 4 was the best division they could find. So they went with the seven day week and worried about the loose change of extra days later.

Throughout the world various systems for the week had developed. The most popular competition for the seven day week was the 10 day week. Yet the ten day week proved to be too long for those looking forward to the weekend. Besides, adoption of the seven day week by the Hebrews would ensure its longevity over other forms; during the early Christian Era it grew in popularity with the popularity of both Judaism and Christianity. The Christians converted the Romans and the Romans forcibly converted the remainder of the civilized world. In this way the creation story, where God creates the universe in six days and then rests on the seventh, became a model for the activities of all mankind.

So today we still use the seven day week. Only now, as a tribute to man's productivity, we rest two days a week. Like the week itself, each day of the week has its own particular story, click on the link below to read about Sunday.

danniemcq

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_166.html

Dear Cecil:

Why are there seven days in a week? (Note: this question is not easy. Every other time division is based on natural phenomena but the hour/minute/second group.) The question, expanded, is this: (a) Why have weeks at all? (b) And if weeks, why seven days? --John S., Evanston, Illinois

Cecil replies:

Thanks, John, but I'll decide which questions are easy, if you don't mind. Is this a test or something?

The most primitive calendar-keeping peoples had no weeks, but as civilization progressed it became apparent that a time period longer than a day and shorter than a month would come in real handy for scheduling certain activities. The primitive equivalent of shopping, for instance. The first "weeks," in fact, appear to have been intervals between market days. The intervals varied--some West African tribes had four-day weeks, and the Egyptian interval was ten days. The first Roman "week" was the nundinae, nine days counted inclusively from one market day to the next.

Many reasons are given for the seven-day week--probably it's the result of several of the following factors taken together: the four phases of the moon are roughly seven days in length; the Babylonians believed in the sacredness of the number seven; in ancient times, seven planets (including the sun and moon) were thought to exist (and indeed the days of the week were named after them). The Mosaic sabbath defined a seven-day period, and the dispersed Jews who observed it may have influenced the establishment of the seven-day week--it first appears in the early Christian era.

The present custom of a five-day work week plus a two-day weekend is a recent invention. The Sabbath (Saturday if you're Jewish, Sunday if you're Christian) was the only traditional day of leisure from the time of Creation (when, of course, God rested) until the mid-1930s. A "share the work" sentiment during the Depression resulted in codes of fair competition that established the 40-hour, five-day work week. The National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933, under which these codes were adopted, was later declared unconstitutional, but the practice remained. In 1938 the Fair Labor Standards Act renewed the 40-hour week's basis in law by stipulating that hours worked in excess of 40 were to be compensated at one and one-half times the normal rate.

--CECIL ADAMS

danniemcq

Haha well you're bound to find the answer now!

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

lol - talk about over-information!

Rabies

:d

danniemcq

Rabies wrote:

:d

b@stard!

The tax man

Just ask Ray D'arcy

zoro

ooooh nice replies
plenty to read now

Endurance Man

Next time, just remember, google is your friend , he wants to hold and caress you, and whisper sweet nothings into your ear.

zoro

Meh, I thought it'd spark a nice conversation. I won't bother next time

Wertz

The tax man wrote:

Just ask Ray D'arcy

Or just google it and save his team the trouble...:rolleyes:

abercrombie

the french seem to think there are 8 days in the week because another way to say "une semaine" (a week) is "huit jours" (8 days)

FYI like!

Oriel

"Some questions have easy answers. Other questions are harder to answer, and this is one of them.

We've had a seven-day week for ages. Literally. In the Bible, for example, the world was said to have been created in seven days. To some people, that would be an authoritative reason for a seven-day week.

More commonly, though, the seven-day week is believed to have been established in imperial Rome in AD 321. Other sources say the seven-day week was born in Babylon or Persia.

Wherever it started, there are equally fascinating theories for why the week has seven days.

In any case, the most likely reasons we have seven days in a week are the planets. The ancients observed seven heavenly bodies in the solar system: the Sun, the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn. The names of the days are based on the names of the planets and gods associated with them, although it's a bit of a mix between Roman and Norse gods. (Saturday comes from Saturn, for example, while Friday is linked to the goddess Frigg or Freyja.) Encarta has a neat little chart showing the names of days in various languages, and which planet is connected with each one."

Piste

"And on the seventh day the LORD sat back and had a smoke or two, for he was tired, and had worked for the past six days. At the end of the seventh day he said "feck this" and stopped his work, and had a pint"


The bible dont mention no eighth day.

danniemcq

God was to hungover to do anything

MrJoeSoap

Piste wrote:

The bible dont mention no eighth day.

Thats where Chuck Norris came in.

AFAIK, God worked the first five days, went out on the piss on the Friday night, watched the footy on Saturday and went out again on that night, then was so knackered on Sunday that he wasn't arsed doing it again. So he didn't.

Why? Because he's God.

jimmycrackcorm

because if it was six, we'd all have to work sundays and if eight then there would be riots over whether or not Monday was part of the weekend or not.

Kernel

I reckon the real question is why is there only 2 days in a weekend!

I've always found it fascinating that we use a decimal system (base 10) purely because we have 10 digits on our hands. If we had 8 digits, would we be using octal nowadays eh?