Why is the day 24 hrs????????

Question

Why is the day 24 hrs????????

Answer 1

We divided the period between sun rise to sun rise into 24.

We may change this to metric day with 10 or 100 hours!

and each hour into 100 minutes and each minute into 100 seconds.

Answer 2

time is arbitrary. Man invented the way to measure it.

Answer 3

Because earth takes 24 hours for one rotation.

Answer 4

cause thats the time the earth requires to complete one rotation

Answer 5

That's the average time from one sunrise to the next.

Answer 6

Day only 12 hrs.the hole day n night 24 hrs.the earth rotating thats wt we are getting day and night

Answer 7

B/c that is roughly the amount of time it takes for the earth to make one rotation on its axis. It's not exact, just like our Gregorian calendar is not exact.

Answer 8

Think of the Earth as a ball.  Think of the sun as another ball some distance away.

If you're standing on the point closest to the sun ball on the earth ball, it would be the same as noon, with your shadow directly underneath you.  It takes about 24 hours for the Earth to rotate so that you're at that position relative to the sun again.

Answer 9

The earth makes a full rotation in approximately 24 hours. A better question would be, why is an hour 60 minutes?

Answer 10

I think you might be asking why the day was divided into 24 periods instead of any other number, such as 10 or 20. It's because 24 is evenly divisible by many more numbers than any multiple of 10. For the same reason there are 60 minutes in an hour instead of 100 and 360 degrees in a circle instead of 100 or 400.

It's too bad our number system doesn't count by twelves, because 12 can be divided by 2, 3, 4 and 6 with no remainders, and we think in halves, thirds and quarters all the time. We measure things in dozens and pack things by sixes because it's practical: imagine trying to handle five-packs instead of six-packs, for example. We already have 12 months in a year (1/4 = 3 months) and words for dozen and gross...

I'd like to see a circle divided into 144 degrees (written 100 in base twelve or "dozenal" numbers) and a day into 144 time periods, each of which would be equal to exactly ten minutes. Divide degrees by 144 and you have a convenient unit of distance equal to almost exactly 1.2 English miles, taking 20,736  (10,000 in dozenal) to go around the earth. This distance is even closer to a nautical mile, by definition the length of one degree on a great circle, of which there are 360 * 60 or 21,600 in one circumference.

The advantages of counting by twelves extends to geometry and trigonometry also, where triangles play an essential part. Try doing trig using 144 degrees in a circle and dozenal numbers and see how much easier it becomes. All we need is two extra symbols for ten and eleven, maybe X and E, then we can count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, X, E, 10 and go from there.

Chandramoh, a metric day based on tens would be a really bad idea. Base it on twelves and we can talk.

Answer 11

Because that is the amount of time it takes the Earth to turn one rotation.

Answer 12

B'coz of Earth's Rotation!

Answer 13

God divided it like this-

first 5 hrs--sound sleep

next 5 hours-domestic jobs

next 3 hours--- time for anybody else

next 6 hours-work and work and work

2 hrs-recreation(time for yourself)

1 hr-domestic work again)

2 hrs-sound sleep

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24 hrs total

Answer 14

Because it takes 24hrs for the earth to spin on its own axis to provide day and night.