kb/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_time-2.md

title	chunk	source	category	tags	date_saved	instance
Decimal time	3/5	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_time	reference	science, encyclopedia	2026-05-05T11:12:32.390542+00:00	kb-cron

==== Metric system ==== In designing the new metric system, the intent was to replace all the various units of different bases with a small number of standard decimal units. This was to include units for length, weight, area, liquid capacity, volume, and money. Initially the traditional second of time equal to 1/86400 day was proposed as the base of the metric system, but this was changed in 1791 to base the meter on a decimal division of a measurement of the Earth, instead. Early drafts of the metric system published in 1793 included the new decimal divisions of the day included with the Republican calendar, and some of the same individuals were involved with both projects. On March 28, 1794, Joseph-Louis Lagrange proposed to the Commission for Republican Weights and Measures on dividing the day into 10 decidays and 100 centidays, which would be expressed together as two digits, counting periods of 14 minutes and 24 seconds since midnight, nearly a quarter hour. This would be displayed by one hand on watches. Another hand would display 100 divisions of a centiday, which is 1/10,000 day, or 8.64 seconds. A third hand on a smaller dial would further divide these into 10, which would be 1/100,000 day, or 864 milliseconds, slightly less than a whole second. He suggested the deciday and centiday be used together to represent the time of day, such as "4 and 5", "4/5", or simply "45". This was opposed by Jean-Marie Viallon, of the Sainte-Geneviève Library in Paris, who thought that decimal hours, equal to 2.4 old hours, were too long, and that 100 centidays were too many, and proposed dividing two halves of the day into 10 new hours each, for a total of 20 per day, and that simply changing the numbers on watch dials from 12 to 10, he thought, would be sufficient for rural people. For others, there would be 50 decimal minutes per decimal hour, and 100 decimal seconds per decimal minute. His new hours, minutes, and seconds would thus be more similar to the old units. C.A. Prieur (of the Côte-d'Or), read at the National Convention on Ventôse 11, year III (March 1, 1795):

1. As it does not offer almost all of the nation any marked advantage, it would only throw a disadvantage on the new system of measures and the decimal method, which is however very useful;
2. Since the hourly compilation is not a commercial object or susceptible to a police regulation, the old uses would be maintained by the immense force of habit;
3. This habit would be further consolidated by the fear of confusion. It would be necessary, to prevent it, to take new names that have not yet been indicated, and that it would be very difficult to introduce into common language, especially for so many people who do not write, who do not calculate, and who appreciate time only by a routine based on common opinion;
4. The expense of changing the clocks would be enormous;
5. Finally, citizens and watchmakers would be infinitely dismayed, some to change their watches, others to lose the ability to sell those that are already made. This truth is acquired by the result of the contest which took place recently, under the decree on watchmaking movements. But by asking that the decimal division of the day is not a condition of rigor, there is no disagreement that there are several circumstances where it has advantages. We know that in several objects of the Navy service, in astronomical or trigonometric calculations, and for delicate experiments, the decimal division of time is more convenient. It will therefore be good to reserve it for these cases, until the use can spread more generally, which will happen by itself imperceptibly. Thus, the law of 18 Germinal An III (April 7, 1795) establishing the metric system, rather than including metric units for time, repealed the mandatory use of decimal time, although its use continued for a number of years in some places. As predicted, it was quickly found to be useful by astronomers, who still use it in the form of fractional days. Carl Friedrich Gauss recommended the ephemeris second as a metric base unit for time interval in 1832, which eventually became the atomic second in the International System. However, for longer periods of time interval, the old non-decimal units were approved for use.

==== Later proposals ==== At the International Meridian Conference of 1884, the following resolution was proposed by the French delegation and passed nem con (with 3 abstentions):

VII. That the Conference expresses the hope that the technical studies designed to regulate and extend the application of the decimal system to the division of angular space and of time shall be resumed, so as to permit the extension of this application to all cases in which it presents real advantages. In the 1890s, Joseph Charles François de Rey-Pailhade, president of the Toulouse Geographical Society, proposed dividing the day into 100 parts, called cés, equal to 14.4 standard minutes, and each divided into 10 decicés, 100 centicés, etc. The Toulouse Chamber of Commerce adopted a resolution supporting his proposal in April 1897. Although widely published, the proposal received little backing. The French made another attempt at the decimalization of time in 1897, when the Commission de décimalisation du temps was created by the Bureau des Longitudes, with the mathematician Henri Poincaré as secretary. The commission adopted a compromise, originally proposed by Henri de Sarrauton of the Oran Geographical Society, of retaining the 24-hour day, but dividing each hour into 100 decimal minutes, and each minute into 100 seconds. The plan did not gain acceptance and was abandoned in 1900.

=== Swatch Internet Time ===