How did countries of the world come about deciding on a universal measurement for time?

Question

I know there is a slight when considering “military” time, but every one agrees that there are 24 hrs in a day. How did we all come to agreement on this fact?

In: Other

Answer 1

The answer to that and many other questions about why the world works the way it does is Colonialism.

The Europeans standardized the system of time we use now, and standardized the use of accurate clocks to quite literally help the trains run on time. Prior to universal time keeping each town had it’s own clocks and sometimes time between regions was significantly off. Trying to have trains show up on time for consistent and reliable travel requires you to have universal time.

Clocks, or more specifically ships chronometers are also super important for navigation. Knowing what time it is helped sailors identify their longitude.

As the Europeans conquered and colonized the known world they brought many concepts with them including Arabic numerals, the Imperial System of Measure and weight, and European Time keeping including the Western Calendar.

Having such standards was important for trade as made exchanging goods between different nations much easier. Since the Europeans were the dominant power of the era, everyone started doing things their way.

As for where the European system of time came from… that’s complex.

The 24 hours in a day was invented by the Egyptians that divided the day and night into 12 units.

The 60 minutes and seconds comes from the Babylonians who had a love for the number 60 and based a lot of things on 60.

360 degrees in a circle also comes from the Babylonians (60 x 6) who believed there were 360 days in a year. Each degree represent a day in a circle which in turn was used to plot out the stars. Needless to say they got that one a bit wrong.

The Romans decided to have 12 months in a year, and changed things around back and forth before finally settling on the calendar we more or less have now.

And the 7 days of the week comes from the Bible, God created the Earth in 6 days and the 7th day he rested. But the days of the week are mostly named after Scandinavian Pagan Gods, figure that one out.