Tag: 24-hora

Scaling Time by 24 and 15

24 hours, 24 days, 24 hōra. 15 days, 15 months, 15 years.

One of theAbysmal Calendar’s functions is to facilitate scaling over orders of magnitude from seconds to epoch. Using the 24-hour day, the 24-day month, and 24–hōra year, (see: 360 day calendar) theAbysmal breaks linear time and pieces together a fractal, self-similar model of time.

Short version: the 360-day calendar does not include Leap Day (Jun 21), the New Year on Dec 21, or the four midquarter days: Feb 5, May 7 (6 in a leap year), Aug 6, Nov 5.

Calendar as Clock Analog

theAbysmal Calendar divides up the year symmetrically occording to the Seasons, providing a wide variety of divisions of the year into even numbers of weeks and months. For the purposes of relating the 24-hour day to the 365-day year, we use the 360 + 5 day model. The 365 days of the year (and the leap day) are divided into 360 calendar days and five (or six) days that fall outside of the calendar. We still experience the days – dawn to dusk to dawn – while the calendar takes a pause.

The five days excluded from theAbysmal 360-day year are:

Dec 21, Feb 5, May 7 (6), Aug 6, Nov 5
Jun 21 (Leap Day)

The remaining 360 days are arranged as 24 hōra of 15 days each, and 15 months of 24 days each.

the 24-hour day

86,400 seconds/day = 60 x 60 x 24 = 3600 x 24 = 360 x 240

analog 24-hour clock face. Midnight is marked by the number 24 at bottom..

I’ve chosen this particular clockface because it follows a number of patterns in common with theAbysmal Calendar:

  • begins counting with 0
  • covers a full 24 hours rather than twice 12 hours
  • places midnight at bottom

While we usually divide our day into 24 hours of 60 minutes of 60 seconds, we also observe half and quarter hours, periods in five-minute increments, a.m. and p.m. We haven’t really explored the full potential of dividing our day.

86,400 seconds/day = 27 x 33 x 52

There are so many ways to arrange these prime factors, however, the one that suits our purposes here are those that resonate with our 360-day year:

86,400
= 60 x 60 x 24
= 3600 x 24
= 360 x 240
= 24 x 15 x 240

In the course of a 24-hour day, there are 360 periods of 240 seconds (4 minutes), as there are 240 periods of 360 seconds (6 minutes).

theAbysmal Year

365 = 360 + 5 = 15 x 24 + 5

a radial image of the year divided into 24 months of 15 days each. The months are numbered 0 to 23, the quarters 0 to 4, the terms 0 to 2.
theAbysmal 24-hōra year

This particular visualization of theAbysmal Year follows a similar course to the clockface above:

  • begins counting with 0
  • covers a full 24 months
  • places Winter Solstice at bottom

While theAbysmal Calendar begins the day at Midnight and the year at the Southern Solstice at Dec 22, for the purposes of this exercise, let’s consider beginning both the Northern and Southern year at the Winter Solstice, Dec 21 and Jun 21 respectively.

There are two ways to arrange the 24-day month within the 360-day year: either as months of four 6-day weeks or three 8-day weeks.

radial image of the days of the year. The outer circle is made of 15 rectangles. Each rectangle is composed of four by six circles. Each circle is shaded a colour of greyscale. The colour of the days range from black at bottom through greyscale to white at top. The circle inside numbers the months 0 to 14 clockwise from bottom left. The next circle in numbers the fifths 0 to 5, the next circle numbers the terms 0 to 2. At centre is the number 360.
theAbysmal 15-month year by 6-day week

The months illustrated above can be divided easily into quarters by 6-day week, whereas the months illustrated below can be divided by 8-day week. These reflect our use of 6-hour and 8-hour periods in scheduling our daily activity.

Radial arrangment of the days of the year. Outer circle are fifteen rectangles of 3 by 8 circles representing the days. The ring inside numbers the months clockwise from bottom 0 to 14. The ring inside numbers the fifths 0 to 4. The next the terms 0 to 2. At centre is the number 360.
theAbysmal 15-month year by 8-day week

theAbysmal Calendar’s two principal models, then, are the 24-hōra year and the 24-day month.

Time by the Analogous Clock

When we look to relate the 24-hour day to the 24-day month and 24-hōra year, each of the days of the month and days of the hōra are themselves divisible by hours, minutes, and seconds.

24-hour day24-day month24-hōra year
1 day24 days360 days
1 hour1 day15 days
4 minutes96 minutes1 day
1 minute24 minutes6 hours
10 seconds4 minutes1 hour
1 second24 seconds6 minutes
4 seconds1 minute
1 second15 seconds
Table of equivalent times

We can further extend this equivalence to longer spans of time.

24-hour day24-day month24-hōra year
1 day24 days360 days
15 days1 year15 years
360 days24 years360 years
15 years360 years5,400 years
Table of equivalent longer times

What bends the mind is that 15 days of our typical experience is equivalent to 1 full year of 15 months as well as 15 years. 15 days is the duration of 1 hōra. So while we experience our 15-day hōra, it is a fractal for the 15-month year, and also for 15 years arranged by 24 hōra.

While we can further equate 15 years to a historical epoch of 5,400 years, theAbysmal uses a 5,200 year historical epoch. There’s nothing saying we can’t have both. The more ways there are to arrange time, the more it becomes a function of our mind and less an external truism.