We have different metrics internationally for length/distance, weights, temperature, etc. Why, as far as I know, is there only hours/minutes/seconds for the entire world? Not that I’m complaining, the alternative would be a huge pain in the a**, but I’m curious how that happened over time (sorry about the pun). TIA!
In: Physics
Time measurement wasn’t really much of a thing for most people in older times.
But length and weight were VERY important. Tell a farmer that his land is smaller than it is and they’ll get upset. Tell someone that their produce is heavier or lighter will make them really upset. So it is really important for even older civilizations that lengths and weights are somewhat standardized. And being important, there was a lot of attachment to those units as they played important roles in trade.
Whether you woke up and started work “in the period of the wolf” or had dinner “in the hour of the chicken” is much less important for daily life. Your work period varied with the seasons and the length of the day – absolute measures were just not that important. In that sense, standardization didn’t really cause much concern and is more easily adopted. And of course, one really cannot argue with “sunrise” or “noon” or “sundown” as it was pretty obvious to measure and rather independent of who was in charge.
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