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.

[tomazws]

Are we gonna go into why "second" is CALLED "second", or like how come there are 60 seconds in a minute, but only 24 hours in a day?

[BloodyStupidDave...]

Are we gonna go into why "second" is CALLED "second"

Oh, if you insist!

Minute is actually short for prime minute, or "minuta prima" in Latin. Minuta is Latin for division, so prime minute means main, first or important division (of an hour).

Second is short for second minute and means small division (of an hour).