Solar Calendars: Telling Time by the Sun
Keeping track of time is one of the most important aspects of our lives today. Whether a person has to keep track of a work schedule or not, there are many parts of our lives that require scheduling and time tracking. Some examples are annual visits to the vet to keep pets healthy, taking our own medicines on time if needed, and making sure our cars have regular maintenance done on them. In order to keep all of these things flowing smoothly, we need a time keeping system. Hundreds of years ago, the system we still use today was instituted after some trial and error, and it is known at its most basic as a solar calendar. A solar calendar is, simply, a calendar that uses the sun as its main resource in order to track time (TMCS Resource Library). This is the most simple definition, however, just how and why it happens can
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Before the calendar we use now was put into place, a solar calendar called the Julian calendar was used. The Julian calendar worked well, but it had two flaws: First, it ran on the assumption that a year was exactly 365.25 days long, and it did not account for the fact that the Earth's axis actually rotates. The calendar worked as if the axis stayed in one position (Comins). Because of this, the Julian calendar began to run a bit off-kilter, and the calendar system that we know today as the Gregorian calendar was put into use. The Gregorian calendar makes better use of a process called intercalation that the Julian calendar. Intercalation means to devise a system of proper insertion of time into a set timekeeping system in order to keep it current, such as inserting an extra month or day into the calendar system. The Gregorian calendars makes use of the leap year, which is a form of intercalation, by not making calendar years divisible by the number 100 a leap year
A group called the Powers had their own thrones of doom and were the “most holy gods.” They held council which shows already that order and rule was important. The Powers chose to give names to different times of the day spanning morning, afternoon and night and so on. This structure allowed for a calendar-like count of the days and years so that people could keep track of time. If the sun was visible in one position it was a certain time and they’d know that next the sun would set and then the moon would begin to rise marking the end of a
Nonetheless, there is some resistance to schools converting to a year-round calendar. Most of that opposition comes from the reduction in intersession length, and some students and/or parents don 't like the idea of year-round education from the start. This gives families a reason to voice their opposition when both the parents and child 's schedules do not line up with one another. This usually affects households that wish to take long vacations over the course of a summer. Parents, in some cases, may oppose this change because of child care needs. Child care raises opposition since there is a shift in the school year calendar. Parents may not be able to find nannies or babysitters. In addition, parents will have to check for or maybe even search for new or different childcare services. To add, parents with multiple children may have to worry about their children being put
There are various models of YRS that can be implemented, all of which are reconfigurations of the traditional, nine-month calendar. In some areas these models are known as alternative or modified calendars (Shields & Oberg, 2000) and they all have unique characteristics. Because of theses differences, school systems should spend some time analyzing which model will be best for their particular school; educators may find that some models work better than others depending on the school. Estimates on the exact number of year round schedules vary, although it has been estimated that at least 50 different scheduling patterns exist (Palmer & Bemis, 1999). The most common alternatives include the single track calendar and the multi-track calendar.
The Maya elite developed a complicated calendar system. There are two main cycles in their calendar; one was made up of 260 days and the other 365. Each day is named from both the 260 and 365-day calendars. Because of this each full day name could only repeat every 18,980 days or once every 52 years.
Time has always been a necessity for everyone. In the past, the mechanisms used in order to tell time were divergent and not very common because of the lack of technology. Now, every individual is capable of knowing the time because of the influence that technology currently has. Surprisingly enough, even time has an element that is very controversial. Individuals believe daylight light saving time, an adjustment to time that happens twice a year, is inessential because it is presumed to be unhealthy for humans. Although this might be true, this modification is, in fact, imperative across the globe because it saves an abundant amount of energy and it is beneficial for the people.
Daylight Saving Times is something we do here in the United States every year, where we move our clocks back an hour in the fall, and move them forward an hour in the spring. Daylight Saving Time was established during WWI in order to save energy for war production by taking advantage of the later hours of daylight between April and October. Although it was said to save a lot of energy, today it is extremely difficult to determine the energy saved by this, and it is possible that little or no energy is being saved by Daylight Saving. Which poses the question: Is Daylight Saving necessary in the United States? There are many pros and cons to it, but the cons outnumber the cons, and something should be done about it.
Our Sun continuously converts hydrogen into helium and with this process it provides the essentials for life processes. In doing this it controls “our climate, provides light, raises tides, and drives the food chain” (Schaefer 34). Our Sun also has influenced many beliefs now and in the past. History has documented Sun worshipping religions while many current societies use solar calendars (Schaefer 34).
Before Fleming created the Standard Time, people in the 19th century determined the time using the sun. Instead of looking at the clock and knowing the time zone like today, they had to set their clocks to 12 p.m. when the sun reached the highest point. Therefore, if someone travelled to another province by a train, they had to readjust their pocket watch to the appropriate time of a certain province. The unorganized time zone caused great inconvenience for many travellers. Because of the confusion of time changes, "Fleming proposed a standard world time with twenty-four one-hour zones, each covering fifteen degrees of latitude, using one prime meridian to coordinate clocks over the entire globe." When an abundance of people recognized his proposition and supported his idea, the International Meridian Conference was held in Washington, DC in 1884 and initiated to use Fleming's concept of Standard Time. Without Fleming's idea of Standard Time, many tourists who travel across Canada would have missed their trains or planes, making them very distraught. Not only this benefitted Canadians, it also helped other people around the world who lived in a large country, such as United States.
A solar storm in general consists of three major kinds of solar activities – solar flares, solar proton events (SPE), and coronal mass ejection (CME) (Marusek 2007). These solar activities, sometimes happening together, can affect the Earth in various ways.
There are 365 days in a year, 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes in an hour, and 60 seconds in each minute. This vital element to life is often looked over and is thought of to just pass as we go along our days. It’s not something that we usually stop for to think about and examine. To humans, time is seen as useless and easily brushed off, but many don’t realize that it is a crucial and necessary concept that affects our everyday life and could easily live without us.
In 1910, Arthur Eddington, a British Astrophysicist, discovered solar winds. Solar winds are basically a continuous flow (they are never ending basically) of particles from the sun. They are also known as stellar winds. Their usual way out of the sun is the coronal holes. Their main cause is an expansion of gases in the corona, which is the outer layer of the sun. The idea that the corona is plasma was thought of by Richard C. Carrington. The temperature of the corona is 2,200,000 degrees Celsius. It is so hot that not even the sun’s gravity can contain it. It heats gases and makes them expand. The gas items run into each other as they are heated. As a result, they lose their electrons. Then, the atoms become ions with a positive charge, the electrons and ions (which are mostly Hydrogen ions) make up the solar wind. The velocity of solar winds goes from 250 to 1000 kilometers every second. It has a density of 82 ions for every cubic inch, or 5 ions per cubic centimeter. Solar winds are the cause of many occurrences in the solar system like Mercury having no atmosphere, and Venus’ acidic, radiation filled clouds. They are also known as electrically charged hurricanes.
Ever since the beginning of time there have been stars. Not only stars in the sky, but moons, planets, and even galaxies! Astronomy is defined as the branch of science that deals with celestial objects, space, and the physical universe as a whole. In other words it is the study of space, planets, and stars. Throughout the ages, many people have used astronomy to help them learn about the universe, our own planet, and even make predictions about life itself. Understanding astronomy means understanding where it originated, the different groups/cultures that used it, and modern purposes of the science of the stars.
Timekeeping has been an integral part of life ever since humans stepped foot on the earth. Once humans realized the difference between night and day, moon phases were used to determine months, changing seasons and record years. Soon humans realized the connection of time with the sun’s position and started using shadows to keep time thus creating the sundial, used foremost by the Egyptians and Greeks. As life become more complex, so did the need to keep time accurately. Initially, the mechanical clock was invented in 1000 AD. We then graduated to using celestial time and finally the atomic clocks were invented in 1967. These atomic clocks are so efficient that they make other methods of timekeeping seem redundant. Thus we have come a long way in timekeeping and I strongly believe that continuing to use the earth’s rotation around the sun as a method of timekeeping would mean ignoring the advances made in timekeeping over the course of history and moving further back into the past.
There are eight planets in our solar system. The first planet closest to the sun is Mercury. Therefore, Mercury is the hottest planet. Mercury’s surface is cold. However, in the daytime Mercury can get as hot as 840 degrees fahrenheit, which is 450 degrees celsius. During night time the temperature can decrease to 275 degrees fahrenheit, or -170 degrees celsius. Mercury is the smallest planet. Mercury is the quickest planet to move around the sun. Its speed is approximately 112,000 mph along its elliptical orbit. Mercury can move around the sun in 88 days. There are craters in mercury, and scientist believe ice is in the craters.
Earth system refers to the earths interacting physical, biological, and chemical processes. The system consists of land, oceans, atmosphere and poles. The earth system has four spheres, including the geosphere, the hydrosphere, the atmosphere, and the biosphere. The geosphere refers to the solid parts of the earth system, including earth’s rocky crust, mantle, and the metallic core. Within the geosphere is the lithosphere, which only refers to the uppermost layers of solid earth. The uppermost layers of solid earth are the oceanic and continental crust rocks. Just below the crust is the mantle, which is composed mostly of magnesium and iron silicate minerals. The mantle accounts for about 2/3 of the