
Galactic Tick Day – A celebration of our progress around the milky way - glitch003
http://galactictick.com/
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Tepix
Interesting idea to use a unit that is universal to our galaxy. However, using
deci-arcseconds (1/360/360/1000) seems arbitrary - it depends on the 360
degrees of a full circle and the decimal system.

Perhaps dividing the time period of 225million years by a power of two would
be more universal.

For our life span, 2^27 looks good:

225.000.000 years / 2^27 = 1.67638 years, 611 days

Or perhaps 2^28? That'd be 305.94 days

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skissane
I agree that divisions of 2^27 or 2^28 are in a sense less arbitrary than
deci-arcseconds – but while the base (2) seems non-arbitrary, the same can't
be said for the exponent (27 or 28). Wouldn't 2^32 be even better? A bit over
19 days.

Or I would argue 2^16 is even less arbitrary than 2^32. 2^(2^(2^2)) feels less
arbitrary to me than 2^(2^5). A bit over 3,433 years.

This gives me an idea – write dates/times in hexadecimal. The first four
hexits refer to units of 2^16 (roughly 3,433 years). The next four hexits
refer to units of 2^32 (roughly 19 days). Then come units of 2^48 (roughly 25
seconds). Then units of 2^64 (about 385 microseconds), etc. However, you need
to pick an epoch (zero point), and any choice of epoch is going to feel much
more arbitrary than the system as a whole.

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restalis
_" However, you need to pick an epoch (zero point), and any choice of epoch is
going to feel much more arbitrary than the system as a whole."_

How about the best estimation for the 13.8 billion years old Big Bang event?
Expressed through the number of galactic revolutions, of course.

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Tepix
Sure, we will not pick the epoch as someone else, but at least we celebrate it
in the same interval.

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restalis
You must be a very optimistic person to think beyond our own galaxy! Taking
this path, should we think how shall we deal with the stability of our
galactic movement reference if the Andromeda collision will affect it?

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BetaCygni
The definition is very arbitrary: a centi-arcsecond. Why not celebrate a
galactic quarter second every 704 days? Just as arbitrary, but much more
relatable. As starting point, just take the year 0, so we're living at 4
galactic minutes and 21.25 seconds now.

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thaumasiotes
The year 0?

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fla
this year minus 2016

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tossaway1
Maybe thaumasiotes was pointing out that there was no year zero. Before the
year 1 was the year 1 BC...

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skissane
The traditional AD/BC system (aka the CE/BCE system) doesn't have a year zero.
But astronomical year numbering does. (0 = 1 BC, -1 = 2 BC, etc.) Given the
astronomical flavour of this discussion, the assumption that BetaCygni was
using astronomical year numbering is reasonable.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_year_numbering](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_year_numbering)

~~~
BetaCygni
I'm just a developer who by habit starts counting from 0. I meant to start at
January 1st AD 1 0:00 AM.

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givan
What if our sun is not an exception?

Pluto turns around the Sun, but from Pluto the Sun is very small. Idem, the
Sun could turn around a very big and very far star looking very small from the
Earth.

We could be in a wide binary where currently the stars are at a maximum
opposites, then the binary companion would be a very bright star at night, and
not visible during the day.

This could explain the nemesis star theory for mass extinctions
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemesis_(hypothetical_star)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemesis_\(hypothetical_star\))
and also the recently discovered anomaly in the planets orbit
[https://www.caltech.edu/news/caltech-researchers-find-
eviden...](https://www.caltech.edu/news/caltech-researchers-find-evidence-
real-ninth-planet-49523) or why the Kuiper Belt ends suddenly or the Pioneer
anomaly or maybe even the Oort Cloud.

There are some still unproved theories that state this star could be Sirius
binary and we are in fact in a triple star system.

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restalis
It would be interesting to relate the galactic revolution subdivisions with
other neutral units like multiples of Planck time. Like others mentioned here,
the "tick" is very cultural and therefore not assured to be accepted in the
long term by future generations (of our more rational off-springs).

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bryondowd
Interesting thought. Tough to get to anything useful from Planck time though.
2^^8 (as in 2^2^2^2^2^2^2^2) Planck times would be a bit over 30 microseconds,
but then I'm not sure how you'd go from there to a useful time scale.

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jankor
Well you can check your Galactic Tick birthdays
[http://jankor.github.io/galacticbday/](http://jankor.github.io/galacticbday/)

If you feel too Sun-centric.

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jbverschoor
Just in time to play Galactic Escape - escape black hole :)

[https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-
store/id1076368667?pt=132...](https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-
store/id1076368667?pt=132536&ct=hn&mt=8)

Sorry for the plug :)

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sizzzzlerz
Already? Seems like the time between them keeps getting shorter every year! I
haven't even started my shopping yet.

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jupp0r
Oh no, galactic ticks are going to drink all of our blood!!!!

SCNR

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throwaway000002
Um, as the Earth to the Sun, what's the length of the Sun's day with respect
to the galactic center.

If my knowledge of mechanics is correct, given enough time, all days tend to
infinity? (Like the moon's day with respect to Earth?)

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Tepix
Not sure what you mean, but according to
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_rotation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_rotation)
"at the equator the solar rotation period is 24.47 days and almost 38 days at
the poles".

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throwaway000002
Ahh, thanks for that. Should have realized that the sun doesn't have a "fixed"
surface. It seems that the center, however, has a rotational frequency of
about 432nHz which results in a rotation period of 26.8 days.

All of these numbers are way faster than I imagined, which means that the
length of the "solar year" is still incredibly long in "solar days".

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cyphar
Star core rotation is actually very interesting physics (it affects
oscillations in the star in some very fun ways).

