From Innfogra@aol.com Sun Dec 26 00:26:00 1999
From: Innfogra@aol.com
To: test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org
Subject: Time is relative
Date: Sun, 26 Dec 1999 00:26:00 +0000
Message-ID: <0.afdc3766.25970ef8@aol.com>
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In a message dated 12/25/1999 1:25:27 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
foxvideo(a)wincom.net writes:

>   Now what I would like some of you scientific types to explain to me is how
>  folks living in the years 'BC' designated them. They couldn't say "this
>  year is 45 BC'" because they didn't know when it was going to happen.

Time is relative. The Egyptians had their own calendar, it would be 5XXX now. 

I rather like the Mayan interlocking circles. Their calendar was more 
accurate than ours. It is also interesting that it had a start time that 
preceded their own culture.

I suspect that for most of humanity that the stars and the night sky has held 
a far greater position in ones life than now. We used to live a lot closer to 
earth's cycles. The seasons and passing of years generate their own calendar. 
We, in Oregon, are going through a long term cycle of heavier rainfall, more 
than 18 years long. People seem to forget this is a 'cycle' in the dry years. 
I wonder what the native American cultures called "EL Nino"? I am sure it was 
a segment of their calendar.

Mediterranean metalsmiths(in Rhodes, 86BC) built a differential geared 
calculator for calculating the positions of the sun and moon, with eclipses, 
multiple years and more. Here is a URL which may have appeared on this list 
before. 
http://www.math.utsa.edu/ecz/ak.html
<A HREF="http://www.math.utsa.edu/ecz/ak.html">Gears from the Greeks</A> I 
hope this qualifies as "on topic"

Many cultures instituted their own calendars. Western civilization has 
instituted the current calendar, mostly for commercial purposes. Since most 
people have adopted it, the current calendar would be hard to change.  This 
is the same problem with the millennium change. I like the British 
Observatory's statement. The idea of a year of celebration sounds like a lot 
of fun, I hope to do my share.

Paxton

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