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Discussion » Questions » Environment » How many ways would life be different if an earth hour had 50 minutes and there were 20 hours in each day?

How many ways would life be different if an earth hour had 50 minutes and there were 20 hours in each day?

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Posted - September 21, 2016

Responses


  • 17260

    I don't know about how many ways, but day will turn into nights and nights into days, and back again several times during the year. Seasons will be changing weather over the years too. Basically we will cut the length of a year by just above 30%.

      September 21, 2016 6:52 AM MDT
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  • 14795
    Everyone would live longer and we'd all get more birthdays and Christmas presents.......mathematically of course....
      September 21, 2016 4:31 PM MDT
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  • 258

    Whatever way you want to chop up a day, the Earth has known shorter days in its natural history. When the earth was young a day was about eight hours. The moon was an imposing presence in the sky, at one time being about 40,000 miles away or less (as opposed to the current 240,000). In the time since, the moon's velocity has allowed it to escape about 3 cm per year and tidal forces have slowed the rotation of both bodies. The moon, in fact, rotates at the same rate that it orbits, so the same face is toward Earth all the time in its 28-day cycle.

      September 21, 2016 4:53 PM MDT
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  • 60
    I can think of only one thing of note - our timekeeping. Longer minutes would mean our clocks would have to be changed. I would think phones and computers would be simple enough, but standalone non-internet clocks would need replacing.
      September 21, 2016 5:28 PM MDT
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  • 53526

    Why?

    (It's nice to see you back, by the way.)

    ~

      September 21, 2016 10:29 PM MDT
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  • 53526

    Thank you.

    ~

      September 21, 2016 10:31 PM MDT
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  • 53526

    Thank you.

    ~

      September 21, 2016 10:34 PM MDT
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  • 17260
    You're welcome.
      September 21, 2016 10:37 PM MDT
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  • 14795
    Our life span is set by nature ......shortening the days and minutes in and hour will only change how long we live on paper......times is just women/mankind conception of things....all other living have no conception of time.....just light and dark and seasonal changes that effects all life forms.....
      September 22, 2016 12:36 AM MDT
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  • 17614

    Oh dread.  No.  There aren't enough hours in the day now.  My body works on a 26 hour clock.  That's why if I don't stay vigilant and disciplined, my sleep schedule continually will change .  I haven't been for the past few  months.  I'm going to work on that soon........just any day now.

      September 22, 2016 10:45 AM MDT
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  • Not much would change. We are already a rushed 24/7 globalized society.

      September 22, 2016 10:52 AM MDT
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  • 46117

    Who would know the difference to notice?

      September 22, 2016 10:54 AM MDT
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  • 53526
    Who would know to notice?

    :(
      September 22, 2016 8:25 PM MDT
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  • 17614

    Me.  My body works on a 26 hour day.  I have to be very disciplined to stay on a 24 hour day.  When I'm not, I will go to bed two hours later each day than I did the night (or day) before. 

      September 23, 2016 12:48 AM MDT
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  • 22891

    we'd have even less time to do anything

      September 24, 2016 7:54 PM MDT
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  • 3719
    Hours and minutes are human constructs, and we perceive time and speed relatively to those constructs.

    The Earth takes a finite time to revolve on its axis, and a finite time to orbit the Sun; and although these values are changing the rate of change is insignificant in human-history terms.

    So the numbers of minutes in hours and hours in days, etc, are purely artificial. If humanity had adopted a scale such as the OP suggests, we'd have the same "amount" of daylight and night as now, but would describe in different numbers of units of different lengths to the ones we do use.

    Effectively, the division of time into a different scale would be analogous to dividing distance in different scales: the distance between two cities' datum-points stays the same whether you describe it in miles and yards or kilometres and metres.
      December 1, 2016 4:49 PM MST
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