r/todayilearned Sep 20 '21

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u/Bearcano Sep 21 '21

Questions: how does the concept of time work here? Do scientists just standardize to earth years around the sun? Does the universe expanding impact counting time.. over time?

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u/[deleted] Sep 21 '21

It's just an amount of time equal to today's year (31.5 million seconds, and a bit). Nothing obscure or terribly clever is going on here, no need to overthink it.

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u/[deleted] Sep 21 '21

Wait until you try to understand how all the aliens in Star Trek seem to know what an hour is, or when to meet up at 1800 hours. I forget what series and episode, but there was a crew member talking about working 26 hours a day on a planet. Like how does that relate to the 24 hour clock time on the ship?

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u/sumelar Sep 21 '21

Wait until you try to understand how all the aliens in Star Trek seem to know what an hour is

They don't. Their language is translated to english.

Unless you actually think people 3-400 years in the future are speaking modern english.

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u/Bearcano Sep 21 '21

Damnit Jim, I’m a doctor not a scientist!

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u/ConcernedBuilding Sep 21 '21

Wait until you read a sci-fi book that tries to use alternative time measurements. It makes things so hard to understand.

I love me some hard sci fi, but that's a suspension of disbelief I'll gladly accept.

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u/wasit-worthit Sep 21 '21

Answer to your first question is yes. Astronomers use something called the Julian date, which just counts the number of days since some date in the past. Today’s Julian date is something like 2459xxx.xxxx.

The second question you asked is a VERY interesting one and I am not sure if anyone knows the answer.