More time in bed?

[LMcD]

‘Someone put a sausage on my clock’

‘What time was it?’

‘Summat to eight’.

Thanks for that (I think ).
If only there were a 'groan' smiley!
Still, terrible jokes about sausages are preferable to porkies from certain folk in high office.

[oddoneout]

This discussion has thrown up one of those random learning opportunities. I had always thought it was 'meridian' so seeing 'meridiem' prompted a check. I shan't remember but at least for now I now that it's post/antemeridian(all one word), or post/ante meridiem(two words) if spelling out PM/AM.

[ardcarp]

As I'm sure everyone knows, a 'meridian' is a line drawn on the earth's surface which passes through the geographical poles. (In fact it's a slightly flattened circle.) The one passing through Greenwich was determined (by the English) as being 000 degrees. When the sun is directly overhead, it's midday in GMT. In Napoleon's era, the French wanted to make Paris the OOO meridian, but somehow (!) we prevailed. All the world's time-zones are worked out from Greenwich in 15 degree slices. However, many countries choose to bend the boundaries a bit. For instance much of Western Europe lies within our geographical time zone (France for instance!) but choose to join Central Europe. So their clock-time 'noon' is an hour earlier than ours.



Sailors who ply the world's oceans often have to puzzle over what time it is where they happen to be. It's especially confusing if you cross the 180 degree meridian. Depending whether you're heading East or West you lose or gain a calendar 'day'.

Seminar over.

[Dave2002]

As I'm sure everyone knows, a 'meridian' is a line drawn on the earth's surface which passes through the geographical poles. (In fact it's a slightly flattened circle.) The one passing through Greenwich was determined (by the English) as being 000 degrees. When the sun is directly overhead, it's midday in GMT. In Napoleon's era, the French wanted to make Paris the OOO meridian, but somehow (!) we prevailed. All the world's time-zones are worked out from Greenwich in 15 degree slices. However, many countries choose to bend the boundaries a bit. For instance much of Western Europe lies within our geographical time zone (France for instance!) but choose to join Central Europe. So their clock-time 'noon' is an hour earlier than ours.

Depending whether you're heading East or West you lose or gain a calendar 'day'.

Doesn't it actually depend on the time of day when you cross the date line? You'd have to cross in an infinitesimally small time to lose a whole day - but I think the way it works is you get one very short one, and one much longer one going the other way, and if you cross going west in the night having gone to sleep on one day, then when you wake up it's the day after tomorrow. If you cross the date line, the time of day stays (almost) the same, but the date almost instantaneously flips one forwards or one backwards.

[Serial_Apologist]

Doesn't it actually depend on the time of day when you cross the date line? You'd have to cross in an infinitesimally small time to lose a whole day - but I think the way it works is you get one very short one, and one much longer one going the other way, and if you cross going west in the night having gone to sleep on one day, then when you wake up it's the day after tomorrow. If you cross the date line, the time of day stays (almost) the same, but the date almost instantaneously flips one forwards or one backwards.

You just triggered jet lag in me.

[ardcarp]

If you cross the date line, the time of day stays (almost) the same, but the date almost instantaneously flips one forwards or one backwards.

Unless you're in the quantum world, you can still boil your eggs with confidence for 4 minutes as you cross 180 degrees! As you point out, it's more a question for navigators as to what date it it is. This is important if you are taking sun and star sights with a sextant, because the books of tables you use to work out your position...and it's complicated at the best of times.....are date dependent.

I could go on about astronav if anyone's really interested.....

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

[ardcarp]

It doesn't look like approx ten to seven though does it? I think I'll stick to digital for 24-hout time!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It doesn't look like approx ten to seven though does it? I think I'll stick to digital for 24-hout time!

But isn’t that because you’re used to the traditional way? If you’d been brought up on the 24 hour analogue clock, you’d know it was 10 to 19 and wouldn’t bat an eyelid.

[cloughie]

A recent crossword clue was: Time of love, love? Love, love! (8)



Answer: MIDNIGHT (00:00)

Eric Clapton sang

After midnight
We gonna let it all hang down
After midnight
We gonna chugalug and shout
Gonna stimulate some action
We gonna get some satisfaction
We gonna find out what it is all about
After midnight
We gonna let it all hang down