Re: Earth Deceleration theory likely a farce


"Greg Neill" <gneillRE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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Moshiachyozif wrote:
"Greg Neill" <gneillRE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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Moshiachyozif wrote:
"Greg Neill" <gneillRE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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Moshiachyozif wrote:


But I don't believe that their "hours" were uniform in length.
Uniform hours was a concept that came in, I believe, only after
the introduction of mechanical clocks in the middle ages.

Well, your cultural bias is showing. The Egyptians as early as the
Amarna Period had a concept of the hour as determined by atomic clocks,

Atomic clocks in 1350 BC? Surely you jest.

WHAT?!!! How did that happen? I had atomic on my brain. I meant WATER
clocks.

The Babylonians used the motion of the constellations at night to track
time, assigning about 30 degrees or two hours to each sign. The length
of time spent in each constellation would vary throughout the nights of
the year, although for Babylon, being relatively close to the equator,
this would not pose great problems.

It was, I believe the Greeks that first proposed the use of equal length
hours in order to support the mathematics of predictive calculations (as
opposed to simple period multpliers). Hipparchus proposed dividing the
day into 24 equal hours (called equinoctial hours, because days and nights
are of equal length on the equinoxes). It wasn't until the introduction
of mechanical clocks that equal length hours became commonplace for
ordinary use.

Well, maybe he influenced the Egyptians. But this is "out there" regarding
Egyptians,
I'll defer to you:

24-Hour Division of the Day:
One of the two lasting contributions of the Egyptians to astronomy (in the
large sense) is the 24-hour division of the day. This convention is the end
product of a large number of events which are quite impossible to summarize
in a few sentences. However, the basic fact to remember is the following.
While at least three different systems for astronomical reference were
invented in antiquity--the zodiac by the Mesopotamians, the lunar mansions
in India, and the decans in Egypt--it was the decan--lO°-intervals along the
ecliptic--which led to the division of the night (period of complete
darkness) into 12 equal parts and ultimately the entire sidereal day into 24
hours. These decans, as they were called by the Greeks, were originally
constellations rising helically 10 days apart. (Then, after a period of
nightly visibility, they were invisible for approximately 70 days, then
arose heliacally again, etc.) It was an accident, so to speak, which led to
the selection of the specific constellations which were selected. Once the
selection had been made, however, Egyptian astronomers were mathematically
forced into a 12-part equal division of the night and ultimately the 24-hour
day.

Moshi




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