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9.13.2.1.7
The Martian Week |
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The last major step is the determination of the length of a week. This step is somewhat more arbitrary. Observe that all months contain either 55 or 56 days. The number 55 decomposes into 5 and 11. This number gives us either a lot of short weeks, or a few very long weeks. |
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The number 56, however, decomposes nicely into 7 and 8. This fortuitous result allows us to retain the familiar seven-day week without the psychological impact of producing a set of arbitrary new names for days of the week. A great deal of human economic and social life is organized around the seven-day week, so you would like to retain this unit, if possible. This choice also has the benefit of producing eight weeks, which is twice the length of a Terran month and consistent with the scale of the other Martian units the year is about twice as long as the Terran year, the month is about twice as long as the Terran month, and leap years occur about twice as often. A consequence of choosing a seven-day week is that the Martian calendar will then also have 14 year types seven for common years and seven for leap years, just as the Gregorian calendar does. |
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9.13.2.1.8
A Clock for Mars |
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At this point, address the question of relating time to date. You must come to grips with the fact that human science retains terrestrial roots in its choice of units. Were you to define a Martian day as consisting of 24 Martian hours, you would be compelled to define Martian seconds, as opposed to Terran seconds, and face the prospect of redefining physical constants for local "Martian science". You would much rather retain your current units of seconds. |
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9.13.2.1.8.1
Minutes and Hours |
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The next question is whether to retain the Terran definition of minutes and hours. To learn the answer, you must consider whether you have any alternative choices. There are (246060 + 3960 + 35) = 88,775 seconds in one Martian day. Can this number be factored in a useful way? This number has the following prime factors: 1, 52, 53, and 67. These numbers immediately suggest an arrangement of 25 Martian hours in one Martian day, 53 Martian minutes in one Martian hour, and 67 seconds in one Martian minute. |
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Terms like "Martian hour" become tedious in context, so I introduce the following terms and relations: |
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