Why does summer start in the middle?

[Mulder]

The Summer Solstice is supposed to be the official start of summer (though the EU, rather pragmatically, says it's 1 June). A couple of days after the 'beginning' we have Midsummer's Day! This celebrates the longest day of summer (it moved due to changes in the calendar).

If summer is a season marked by long days, shouldn't the Solstice, the longest day, be in the middle? Then summer would start, as is surely logical, in early May.

[Matt]

The Summer Solstice is supposed to be the official start of summer (though the EU, rather pragmatically, says it's 1 June). A couple of days after the 'beginning' we have Midsummer's Day! This celebrates the longest day of summer (it moved due to changes in the calendar).

If summer is a season marked by long days, shouldn't the Solstice, the longest day, be in the middle? Then summer would start, as is surely logical, in early May.

I thought that the solsitice and the longest day were one and the same thing.

[Graham Lappin]

To take the logic a step further, then we should decimalize the measurement of time surely?

Putting the jokes aside, this is an interesting question. I can't think of any other measurement that has not been decimalized. And yet time is measured in hours, minutes and seconds and then the division of seconds are decimalized.

Now I am not suggesting that the months are abolished and that we go to a sort of Star Trek ... "Star Date 12324 point 4". I state this clearly before the men in the white coats turn up (... not lab coats). Perhaps we might do that is a skeptical Utopia but I am thinking more in terms of scientific measurements. I suspect someone will tell me that computer clocks work on decimal time - not my area and so I don't know.

I can say that in a number of scientific fields, the tendency is to choose a convenient unit of time and then express that unit as a decimal. For example, an experiment running for a week might define the sampling times as 0.5, 1 .... 24, 48 .... 168 hours. You are unlikely to see this expressed as 30 min, 1 hour, one day, two days and 1 week.

Food for thought perhaps - for those with the time to think about it

[Croydon Bob]

To take the logic a step further, then we should decimalize the measurement of time surely?

It is an old idea that didn't catch on: http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~...imal_time.html

Ten hours in the day, 100 minutes in an hour, and 100 seconds in a minute was actually introduced in Revolutionary France in 1795. Scrapped later by Napoleon.

[Graham Lappin]

It is an old idea that didn't catch on: http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~...imal_time.html

Ten hours in the day, 100 minutes in an hour, and 100 seconds in a minute was actually introduced in Revolutionary France in 1795. Scrapped later by Napoleon.

I was aware there were previous attempts but I did not know the detail, so thanks for this.

I can see how it might be a bit tricky to convince the voters on this one and I don't really have any desire to try and do so. For scientific measurement however, I still remain a little puzzled as to why a technical system of decimalised time measurement has not materialised. It would be very specialised, of course - not an everyday thing.

[Cuddles]

If summer is a season marked by long days, shouldn't the Solstice, the longest day, be in the middle? Then summer would start, as is surely logical, in early May.

It's because of the tilt of the Earth. This means that the length of days is not exactly correlated with the temperature and weather. Since our calendar is based mainly on agriculture, it was the conditions for crops that mattered. Basically, summer starts after you've planted them and ends when you harvest. Things like solstices were useful markers, but not part of the actual definitions.

It's worth noting that areas with different climates have used different seasons. Egypt, for example, had agriculture based around the flooding of the Nile which only had three seasons - flood, growing season and drought. Monsoon areas have similar systems.

I can see how it might be a bit tricky to convince the voters on this one and I don't really have any desire to try and do so. For scientific measurement however, I still remain a little puzzled as to why a technical system of decimalised time measurement has not materialised. It would be very specialised, of course - not an everyday thing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_time
I doubt there will ever be decimal time in the sense you're thinking about it. When it comes down to it, the time system we have works perfectly well for everyday use, so there is no point going through all the bother involved with changing it. For more technical uses, a single number that counts up, like UNIX time, is far better than a system divided into several sub-units and so something like that will always be used instead.

[Graham Lappin]

I doubt there will ever be decimal time in the sense you're thinking about it. When it comes down to it, the time system we have works perfectly well for everyday use, so there is no point going through all the bother involved with changing it.

Yes, I know your are right - I was just dreaming.

[Mongrel]

For more technical uses, a single number that counts up, like UNIX time, is far better than a system divided into several sub-units and so something like that will always be used instead.

Although Unix time does seem a bit cumbersome for everyday usage

Example: 1214806992 (2008-06-30 06:23:12Z)

[seren]

I just ignore what everyone else says and have my own pleasingly neat season classification system where each season gets exactly 3 months, starting with spring, March - May.

I know what you mean, Mulder. I always get disappointed after we pass the longest day mark. Feels like a slow, annoying descent into winter right at the beginning of summer.