When was 'time' as we know it invented? How has 'time' evolved?

Question

I mean who decided that there would be 12 numbers on a clock, 60mins to every hour, 24 hours to every day etc.

When was a national 'time' started?

Answer 1

i think it was the ancient babylonians that came up with 60 min. per hour and all the others

as to the other question, im not exactly sure

Answer 2

Some say the mezzics (sp) some say the romans, but i beleivve the mezzics more.

Answer 3

I think the numbers originated from the number 360 which is easily divided without involving fractions.  Not an expert but think this is true.

Answer 4

National time began to evolve with the development of travel.

For navigation it was useful to compare local time with a standard reference (now time at Greenwich, but for many years other countries used their own datum points). In the 18thC the first effective (Harrison) maritime chronometer was invented. This made people aware of the standard, and gave a big impetus to the notion that all of the UK should use the same time.

However the idea was slow to catch on in practice, especially inland. Communications were slow, so that even half an hour's difference between the church clock in one town and the next really did not affect anything that mattered. It was when the railways developed intensive traffic that timetabling, and hence a standard to be used all over the country, became imperative. For a long time GMT was referred to as 'railway time'. The railway companies were keen on having accurate clocks on every station and in every signal box, which gave a boost to the manufacture of accurate & reliable movements which did not cost the earth.

As to where the notion of 12 hours in the day and 12 at night came from, I believe the responder who gave the credit to the Babylonians is right. Why they chose 12 is now obscure. Since day and night vary in length with the seasons, the daytime and nighttime hours were also longer and shorter to correspond - but since no-one was using stopwatches, and even minutes were not counted, it didn't matter much.

The first real clock was designed by an English monk (I think in Winchester) because in a cloudy climate it was hard to tell the time by the stars - and they needed to know the time so that they could get up for the night offices (church services). That clock had no face: it just chimed the hours.

Later, clocks had a face and an hour hand only. Minute hands were slow to catch on; how often did a 16thC guy need to know the time so exactly?

I do not know when they started counting hours from noon & midnight instead of from dawn & dusk - I should imagine when the first clock was made, since dawn and dusk vary, and a clock which marks 24 equal hours needs an invariant starting point.

Hope this helps.

Answer 5

The Sumerians of ancient Mesopotamia. NOT the Babylonians.

The Sumerians invented structured Chronology and the Calendar.

They broke time down into years, months, weeks and days, and broke each day down into segments.

They also invented Writing and Mathematics, and the Mathematical system whereby it was possible to divide and structure the recording of time accurately

It is the reason we have a calandar and measure time in the way that we do today.

They also listed Kings, and how many years they reigned for the first time also.

The Sumerians were the worlds first civilization,from around 3300BC they invented Writing, The Wheel, Mathematics, Astrology, Astronomy, Schools, The Chariot and Beer!

The Sumerian race was eventually intermixed with and absorbed by the Assyrians/Babylonians(ethnically the same race!), and they continued to refine the measurement of time, more so actually by the Assyrian nation rather than their Babylonian brothers.

The descendants of the Ancient Mesopotamians still exist as the Assyrian (aka Chaldo-Assyrian)Aramaic speaking, Ethnic and Christian minority in Iraq to this day.

Hope this all helps

Answer 6

Time, as you know, is one of the basic dimensions of Physics that we use to measure all things.  That's a pretty abstract idea, so most of us instead study how we've kept track of time.  

The sun, of course, is our oldest time-keeper.  As I'm writing, it's "daytime," in general, and "morning" in specific, because the sun is still in the eastern quadrant of the sky.  Soon (~2 hours) the sun will reach it's near-highest point which we call noon.

As far as the history of keeping time, both during the day, and throughout the year, take a look at this:

http://physics.nist.gov/GenInt/Time/time...

Enjoy, and as you read, keep in mind this question:  what time is it on the moon?