have you ever wonder "what makes a second...a second?", wayyyy off topic Options

[lubu]

I was driving home one day in my belove celica....a question popped up in my head "what makes a second, a second"??...i know there are atomic clocks that miss a second in like 1 million year but how did we even measure a second in the first place...?

Now, a day consists of 24 hours and 1hr=3600 seconds. But we could have had 12 hours in a day and keep the same duration of a second so the number of seconds would still be 3600..it just takes twice as long to move a second to a second...so how and what instument were used to measure a second??

Imagine a second's duration were 10 times faster than today than one would says "yez..my celica can do 0-60mph in abt 60 seconds.." LOL ...yep thats a minute.

[Culpable04]

1 second can be calculated by the total movement of the earth. 1 full 360* rotation is 1 day ( 24 hrs ) hrs are made by minutes and minutes by seconds.

the movement of the earth is constant and that's the guide we have to check our timing, so a second is just a small movement of earth I have on my notes somewhere what's the distance ( or degree ) earth turn on each second. if you really wanna know about it let me know and I'll post the full formula and such. be ready for calculus and some great geometry