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Why does a week have seven days?

The Backwards Man

And other random questions that have just occurred to you?

Seriously though, whoy?

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suicide_circus

There are 7 Days so you can meet a girl on Monday, take her for a drink on Tuesday, you be makin' love by Wednesday and Thursday, Friday and Saturday...you chill on Sunday.

Tigger

quickbeam wrote: »

Because all the planets orbit the sun roughly in a plane, they'd be seen by both northern and southern cultures - they basically follow the path of the constellations that make up the zodiac - no further north than the Tropic of Cancer and no further south than the Tropic of Capricorn.

When I was a kid I thought that The planets didn't orbit the sun in a rough plane and that they were depicted that way for ease of use I think I realise they do
Do they spin the same direction
Do they orbit the same direction
Will I just look it up?

quickbeam

Tigger wrote: »

When I was a kid I thought that The planets didn't orbit the sun in a rough plane and that they were depicted that way for ease of use I think I realise they do
Do they spin the same direction
Do they orbit the same direction
Will I just look it up?

Yes, they all orbit the sun in the same direction.
Most spin on their axis in the same direction, though of course some have a tilt (eg, Earth's is 23 degrees). The only one that spins in the opposite direction is Venus, which spins, very, very slowly in the opposite direction. A theory is that it basically got knocked upside down during the forming of the Solar System, so you could say it spins in the same direction as all the others, only its tilt is 180 degrees.

Mellor

Tigger wrote: »

When I was a kid I thought that The planets didn't orbit the sun in a rough plane and that they were depicted that way for ease of use I think I realise they do
Do they spin the same direction
Do they orbit the same direction
Will I just look it up?

All eight planets orbit in the same direction that the sun is spinning. Most spin on their axis in that direction also, except for Venus and Uranus.

CelticRambler

MadDog76 wrote: »

Does pregnancy last 9 months (36 weeks) or 40 weeks (10 months)???

38 weeks from conception, but it seems most doctors and midwives don't trust the mother to know when conception took place, so they backdate the beginning of her pregnancy to the first day of her last period, which is - on average - two weeks before the period of maximum fertility.

It's one reason "due dates" are so inaccurate, compared to cattle, sheep, horses, pigs, dogs, cats, for example, where the breeder can have a much better idea of exactly when to be ready with the towels and hot water. :cool:

Tilikum

The Backwards Man wrote: »

And other random questions that have just occurred to you?

Seriously though, whoy?

Why can I eat the same breakfast for weeks on end, yet if I have to eat the same dinner two days in a row I complain?

s4uv3

I KNOW I KNOW.

It's because "that's the why".
Ok?

[Deleted User]

Do they cut and burn turf for domestic fuel in any other country other that Ireland, is it cold going around in shorts in the winter. I have hundreds of trivial questions that I wonder about, that google can't answer.

seamus

CelticRambler wrote: »

38 weeks from conception, but it seems most doctors and midwives don't trust the mother to know when conception took place, so they backdate the beginning of her pregnancy to the first day of her last period, which is - on average - two weeks before the period of maximum fertility.

Because most people don't know, to be fair. Unless you had sex just once in the month in which you conceived, you can't say with certainty when you conceived. Even then, the time between intercourse and conception can be hours to days, so even if you have the day of sex right, you could be up to a week off on your due date.

The whole thing is a sequence of averages based off the best set of dates you know - usually the day or the week on which your last period started.

BrokenArrows

biko wrote: »

What happens to matter that is sucked into a black hole?

It becomes one with the hole. Very Zen!!

[Deleted User]

How different would the world have been if we lived with a base 12 number system rather than a base 10?

Especially given it is easier to count base 12 on your fingers than base 10 given you can get up to 60 (or 50 in base 12 just to be pedantic) in base 12 quite easily on your fingers but can not get up to 100 as easily.

And do we have 12 hours and 60 minutes in our time calculations because of this ease of finger counting in multiples of 12 or is that just a coincidence?

seamus

Deleted User wrote: »

How different would the world have been if we lived with a base 12 number system rather than a base 10?

Not really different at all tbh, as numerical constants and primes are the same in any base.

The base is merely a representative - when you're counting out 23 objects, the actual physical number of objects you have is the same whether or not you write the number in binary, senary, octal, decimal or duodecimal.

Especially given it is easier to count base 12 on your fingers than base 10

Is that if you count the palms of your hands as well as your fingers? We use decimal because most people only know how to count to ten on their hands

quickbeam

^^ That was always my assumption too - counting in 10s because that's the number of fingers on our hands.

Time is in multiples of 60 because a circle has 360 degrees, and everything breaks down from that.

Mr. FoggPatches

Mellor wrote: »

All eight planets

#justiceforpluto

Ted111

Mellor wrote: »

There are no weeks on other planets. I'm not sure what you are thinking of.

http://gizmodo.com/the-curiosity-rover-has-been-out-of-action-for-weeks-1790270025

Mellor

seamus wrote: »

Not really different at all tbh, as numerical constants and primes are the same in any base.

The base is merely a representative - when you're counting out 23 objects, the actual physical number of objects you have is the same whether or not you write the number in binary, senary, octal, decimal or duodecimal.

I'm not sure that is correct to say it makes no difference. Sure, when counting a group of items its just a list. But the base affects the addition, multiplication etc.

I've always felt that if we had 8 fingers (base 8) people would generally be better at mental maths. The numbers just interact much better in base 8. Squares, indices, long division would be much more trivial.

It would also be easy to divide a piece of paper into random lengths, like into .34.

quickbeam wrote: »

^^ That was always my assumption too - counting in 10s because that's the number of fingers on our hands.

That is the reason.

Time is in multiples of 60 because a circle has 360 degrees, and everything breaks down from that.

What do you mean a circle has 360 degrees? That's not a physical property, its just something we decided.

Ted111 wrote: »

http://gizmodo.com/the-curiosity-rover-has-been-out-of-action-for-weeks-1790270025

Ah bless, nice try. But they are referring to earth time, I'm sure you knew that.

Ted111

Mellor wrote: »

they are referring to earth time

Earth Time!

Ah!

So you admit that there is Martian Time.

Water John

5 days in one week.
5 weeks per month.
14 months per year. 11 have 5 weeks and 3 have 6 weeks.
One free day every 4 years.

Work 3 and rest 2
The same date will be on the same day always. 1st on the 1st Monday etc.

That's my alternative calendar.

One of the planets has a longer day than year, I presume Venus?

Mellor

Ted111 wrote: »

Ah!

So you admit that there is Martian Time.

I never said there wasn't?

All planets have their own days and years.

[Deleted User]

Water John wrote: »

5 days in one week.
5 weeks per month.
14 months per year. 11 have 5 weeks and 3 have 6 weeks.
One free day every 4 years.

Work 3 and rest 2
The same date will be on the same day always. 1st on the 1st Monday etc.

That's my alternative calendar.

One of the planets has a longer day than year, I presume Venus?

Five day week sounds good to me, not so sure about the 14 months,
Which days would you ditch?
Day of sun or the day of moon perhaps or even the day of thunder.

Water John

Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat & Sun.
Use the origins of Tuesday and Thursday to name the two extra months.

Autosport

How do they put the fig into the figrolls

Ted111

Mellor wrote: »

I never said there wasn't?
All planets have their own days and years.

Here's the first three months of the year on mars

Sagittarius Dhanus Capricornus C
So Lu Ma Me Jo Ve Sa So Lu Ma Me Jo Ve Sa So Lu Ma Me Jo Ve Sa
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

zzfh

Why do major notes sound 'happy' and minor notes sound 'sad' ?

Atoms for Peace

Deleted User wrote: »

A ten day week would be a real pain if you only had a two day weekend.

In soviet union week end you.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_calendar#Implementation_of_six-day_weeks

Stravos Murphy

Why get an erection at the communion offering?

Donald Trump

The Backwards Man wrote: »

And other random questions that have just occurred to you?

Seriously though, whoy?

Craiiggggggggggg Davviiiiiiiiiidddd

[Deleted User]

seamus wrote: »

Is that if you count the palms of your hands as well as your fingers? We use decimal because most people only know how to count to ten on their hands

No - it is counting the sections of your fingers - tapping out the count with your thumb. So you have 4x3=12 to count on each hand.

Then using either the fingers on your other hand (5) or tapping out the sections with the thumb of that hand (12) you can count an iteration count of how many times you have used the first hand. So maintain a finger abacus of 60 or 144 without having to reply on working memory at any point.

Much more efficient than counting to 10 on fingers and maintaining an iteration count mentally in working memory. I vaguely remember reading or hearing that this is how we used to do our finger counting historically or that many asian countries still do it this way. I suspect - as I said - that this has something to do with why we have 60 minute hours and 12 hour day sections.

quickbeam

Mellor wrote: »

What do you mean a circle has 360 degrees? That's not a physical property, its just something we decided.

True, of course. It was decided to make a circle 360 degrees because it was easier to divide by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, etc, whereas if they'd made a circle 100 degrees, it would be far more difficult. But time of 60 minutes in a hour, 60 seconds in a minute and 24 hours in a day, are all because of that decision made about the circle.

seamus

Deleted User wrote: »

No - it is counting the sections of your fingers - tapping out the count with your thumb. So you have 4x3=12 to count on each hand.

Isn't that far more difficult in reality? It means you have no way to keep track of anything that's not a multiple of 3. Counting segments is fine if you've already established the concept of counting, but not so much for learning the concept to start with.

When my daughter is working through her counting on her fingers and asks me to show her 4, I can show her 4 fingers.

There's no way to show a toddler 4 finger segments in a way that's easy for them to grasp the concept.

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