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Metric Time and The Speed of Light
[ 259,020.6837 kilometers/metric-second ]
Time Systems, Clocks and Spacetime Measurement

Charles William Johnson


Extract

Metric time is the expression of unitary time for time reckoning on Earth. The conventional 24-hour time system employed today is actually an alternative method of measuring time and telling time. However, scientists have it backwards and call metric time the alternative method, as though the current 24-hour system were the base system. It is the base system because they refuse to employ the unit metric system. This essay explains the difference between metric time and alternative time systems, such as the 24-hour conventional time system employed today. The conventional 24-hour time system is based on the Earth's rotation as is the proposed metric time system. Efforts to overcome these systems by using the number of pulses in an atom of Cesium-133 is discussed regarding methodology and consequences for the measurement of the speed of light.

***

Today is the tenth of February of 2009, and I was reading about some scientist who tackles the concept of time and its possible definition as of two dimensions of space and one dimension of time. He considers that therein may lie a resolution of the T.O.E. [the theory of everything]. Ho-hum. But what was interesting is that it made me think about the concept of time and its measurement.

We mark time by numbers of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and on years, decades, centuries, millennia which all reflect movement in placement. These are impositions arbitrarily chosen by our conceptualizing a number system. The untenable nature of impositions becomes obvious when one examines the unending debates about when a new millenium begins/ends.

The number-based system we have chosen for measuring and telling time results from the divisions of Earth's rotational period in (24) hours/day, (60) minutes/hour, (60) seconds/minute. This system of telling time is called a 60-base system, which in fact is a misnomer. More precisely, it is a 24-60-60-base system. [One could stretch the 60-base point by dividing 24 by 4 = 6 in order to obtain a fractal 6, but again that is stretching the point.]

The Metric System of Measuring Time

In the face of the 24-60-60 conventional time system, many scientists today propose an alternative approach to create a metric method of time measurement (metric time) and of telling time (decimal time). One often cited method is based on multiples of ten (10.0): a 10-100-100 base time system. They present it as follows:

10 metric hours in one day
100 metric minutes in one metric hour
100 metric seconds in one metric minute

The metric second, then, being 1/100000th of one Earth day, would represent 1/100000th part of Earth's rotation. This is important to comprehend the analysis presented in this essay. The 24-hour conventional time system basically takes the Earth's rotation as its foundation as well, but when analyzing the speed of light, for example, inconsistencies make their appearance as we shall discuss below.

The speed of light is given today by NIST [National Institute of Science and Technology] and being exactly 299792.458 kilometers per second [ the second being the lapse of time on the 24-hour clock of course]. In analyzing the speed of light in a vacuum, problems arise because the second of time is taken for granted. When discussing the possibility of a distinct time system, such as the metric time system, the length of the second is no longer taken for granted.

By considering the concept of metric time, certain light is shed upon the speed of light and the measuring and telling of time itself. In metric time, [on the 10-100-100 time system] then, the speed of light would be registered as: 0.864 x 299792.458 kms/s equals 259020.6837 kms/metric second.

In this sense, the metric second is shorter than the 24-hour second. It is in fact 0.864 percent of the 24-hour second. So, the measurement of 2999792.458 kms/sec on the 24-hour clock reflects the same speed as the 259020.6837 kms/metric-second on the metric-10 time system, but each reflects a distinction in the amount of time measured and hence a distinct amount of distance that the light photon has traveled. In both cases, the light photon is traveling at the same speed/velocity, for both 299792.458 kms/sec and 259020.6837 kms/metric-second represent specific expressions of the same spacetime/motion event.

With the adoption of any one of the clocks enunciated above, the values of the physical and chemical constants would undergo change. But, I am most interested in the change regarding the 10-100-100 base time system in relation to the speed of light, for example, the 299792.456 kilometers per second [24-base clock], which would translate to 259020.6837 kms/metric-second.

©2007-2014 Copyrighted by Charles William Johnson. All rights reserved.
Earth/matriX Editions

To read the complete analysis of this essay, please, visit:

1.- metric_time_speed_of_light.pdf

2.- Metric Time and Non-Metric Time: The Speed of Light
metric_time_constants.pdf


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