On "Connections" I heartily agree. I tried to get it from Netflix, but only could get a second series that wasn't as good as the original (had the same host, though).

If I ruled the universe, everyone would have to mandatorally watch the show at about age 10.

Hmmph.

The host did write a column for many years for Scientific American, which were like mini-text versions of his show. They're probably collected online...

:-)

-CW

Aristarchus of Samos (c.310-c.230 BC) proposed a sun centered system with known planets in their correct order.

Eratosthenes (c.276-c.195 BC) headed the Alexandrian Library, which was noted for it's comprehensive collections, so he was almost certainly aware of the theory.

Ptolemy favored an Earth centered model for computational reasons, and didn't exclude other schemes.

But my main question remains unanswered: why did Europeans use 20/2 and Americans decide on 2/20? Was it a hangover from the Revolution, like why Americans drink more coffee than tea even today? Or what? When did the change happen?

-CW

I like the 20 Feb 2014 format for writing, myself, purely because it avoids completely the whole "where to put the commas" problem. But for computer programming, 20140220 is the way to go.

:-)

TheStig -

Yeah, see, I remembered that he did the measurement with two dry wells in separate towns in Egypt, that's what threw my memory off.

I heard this story first in the excellent British series "Connections" and was astounded at the simplicity and genius of the methodology. All you need is two wells, trigonometry, a few willing helpers, and a couple long lengths of rope, and you can measure the circumference of the Earth to within a 10% error, which (scientifically speaking) is close enough. Brilliant!

You're right, the two have nothing to do with each other, though. Did the Egyptians believe in a heliocentric solar system? I don't remember... guess I should've checked...

-CW

Eratosthenes was director of the Library of Alexandria, so it not unreasonable to call him Egyptian of the Hellenistic period.

But, his estimate of the Earth's diameter is independent of the number of days in a year. It's based solely on the local elevation of the sun at noon, measured at locations with nearly the same longitude, a known distance apart, assuming a spherical earth and a large distance between sun and Earth (negligible parrallax).

His prime number sieve is really cool too!

That's OK, I think I should've said "Greeks" instead of "Egyptians" in that last comment about measuring the circumference of the Earth, myself...

:-)

-CW

Leap Day babies, of course, when they're younger, want a present and don't care if it's on 2/28 or 3/1. But as they get older, "9" starts to sound a lot better to some folks than "38." I'm just sayin'...

The year began in March, because it makes more sense. Spring, rebirth, etc. -- pretty easy parallel to draw. Most previous calendars, all the way back to the first (the Egyptians who figured out when the Nile Valley would flood each spring) actually started in the Spring, often on the equinox.

I was doing this from memory, and had somehow remembered that The Church had something to do with moving it back to Jan, due to their enshrining the Winter solstice as Xmas. But perhaps I'm wrong, from what LewDan says this happened earlier. Mea culpa, as the Romans would have said. Or Mother Church, for that matter. Heh.

Julius and Augustus are certainly the gutsiest renamers of all time (true story: I once knew a guy with the first name Leo and whose middle name was Augustus -- and it was no surprise when he told me when his birthday was)... at least, the only ones who ever actually lived, I should say. We all still "worship" Norse gods each and every week, after all. Tiwe's Day, Wodan's Day, Thor's Day, Frigg's Day...

What I've never understood is why Americans write dates differently than Europeans. Today is 2/19 here in the good ol' USA, but it's 19/2 most everywhere elsewhere.

Computer programmers are the only ones who get it right and logical: dates should be most-significant digits down to least-significant. This leads to Y/M/D, or today being 2012/02/19. Why? Makes sorting by date a breeze, programmatically.

:-)

The coolest calendar trivia I know is from that original Egyptian calendar. Their original estimate gave birth to a whole numeric system that we still use today, in fact (you heard it referenced recently in Olympics coverage, I'll bet). The Egyptians blew it by 5-and-a-fraction days (they later added in 5 "off-calendar" feast days when they realized their mistake).

That's right -- the degrees in a circle came from the first (wrong) calendar, because it had 360 days. This was a handy number, since it works for so many base numbers: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12. One degree in a circle was originally the equivalent of the distance the Earth moved around the sun in a day, in essence (Egyptians did successfully measure the circumference of the Earth, but they didn't know the Earth's orbit was an ellipse and not a circle, but I digress...).

Anyway, think about that while watching snowboarders talk about their "720s" and the like...

:-)

-CW

Sorry. March was the first Month of the Roman calendar. It was the Julian calendar in which it became the third month.

OK, calendar know-it-alls, when the Julian calendar was first originated, it started the year in March. We all perpetuate the inaccuracy of changing it to January, for four months out of the year. So what should we do about that?

Four? Not just January and February?

I had assumed that the discrepancy, with 7ber - 10ber being months 9 - 12, came from adding in the months named after Julius and Augustus. But no, they were re-named. And as you say, the year began with March.

You're right, it's the difference between "what day was he born on" and "what date was he born on."

But it's still fun to point out to people who don't know. So there.

Heh.

strangelet [2] -

Aha! Someone else noticed! Yeah, I got mostly yawns when trying to explain this, too. My grandfather actually pointed this out to me long before the event happened, when I was a kid...

dsws [3] -

Phbbbtttt! [sound of Bronx cheer] To you and LewDan. Spoilsports!

What would it be in the French Revolutionary calendar? 4 Ventôse, Year CCXXII?

Heh.

OK, calendar know-it-alls, when the Julian calendar was first originated, it started the year in March. We all perpetuate the inaccuracy of changing it to January, for four months out of the year. So what should we do about that?

[hint for those baffled by that statement: what are the Latin roots of SEPTember, OCTober, NOVEMber, and DECember -- the evidence is right there in front of your eyes...]

Here's another novel defense of the article: ever met anyone born on Feb. 29? Some are quite adamant that their birthday only appears once every four years. So are they wrong, or right? Birthdays are a personal thing...

TheStig [5] -

You forgot the part where bad little boys and girls get nothing but switches (cut from a cherry tree with a hatchet, of course)...

Heh.

HawkOwl -

Didn't delve deeply enough to answer why they were combined, but purists insist that they weren't. Abe's birthday was never officially a federal holiday, whereas George's was. Many states celebrated both, but the bill that Congress passed for 1971 moved many federal holidays to Monday (guaranteeing a three-day weekend). One interesting footnote is that Veteran's Day was likewise moved, but then moved back a few years later, by purists who insisted on the symbology of the original Armistice Day (the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th months...).

Thanks to all for commenting. I love fun stuff like this... maybe I'll write about how Jesus was born 4 years "before Christ" (ie., 4 BC) for Christmas this year...

:-)

-CW

First, welcome to the site!

Your first comment was held for moderation, but from now on you will be able to post instantly. Just don't post more than one link per comment (multilink comments are automatically held for moderation to cut down on comment spam).

Secondly, whoops!

You are right, and it has been fixed. I'm surprised nobody else caught this, either here or on HuffPost...

Mea culpa, the forty days have now been restored.

:-)

-CW

"Myth?? Ray, has it ever occurred to you that the reason we've been so busy is because the dead HAVE been rising from the grave??"
-Winston Zedemore, GHOSTBUSTERS

:D

Michale

If memory serves, the impetus behind the renewed push for Presidents day was the drive to establish Martin Luther King Day in 1969. There was already opinion that there were an awful lot of holidays around that time, in addition Lincoln's Birthday still wasn't federal, for obvious reasons it promoted the same kind of resistance MLK Day did. Presidents Day was an attempt to both officially honor Lincoln and reduce the number of holidays. Because the language honoring Lincoln failed in Congress "Presidents" Day became officially "President's" Day in honor of Washington alone.

Every good myth needs a hard kernel of truth.

Every Feb.22 (Julian) at midnight, George Washington and his Revolutionary Elves emerge from the Little Red Light House under the George Washington Bridge and row across the Hudson to Jersey. They meet up with Abe Lincoln who arrives on a Phantom Steam Train and fly to all 50 states and US Territories delivering gifts, which are put under something. Maybe a flag.

Parents make a big deal about disabling home security motion detectors so George, Abe and Elves can get in the house without tripping the siren. The National Park service runs a "secure web site" where kids and their parents can "E-mail" their keyless entry codes so George and Abe can get in the house without busting a window.

Now THAT was funny!! :D

NSA already knows if they are bad or good. Google knows what they like.

And THAT is scary... Because it's true...

Michale

What separates a major holiday from a minor one is elaborate, fantastical children's mythology that ties into merchandizing!

Every Feb.22 (Julian) at midnight, George Washington and his Revolutionary Elves emerge from the Little Red Light House under the George Washington Bridge and row across the Hudson to Jersey. They meet up with Abe Lincoln who arrives on a Phantom Steam Train and fly to all 50 states and US Territories delivering gifts, which are put under something. Maybe a flag.

Parents make a big deal about disabling home security motion detectors so George, Abe and Elves can get in the house without tripping the siren. The National Park service runs a "secure web site" where kids and their parents can "E-mail" their keyless entry codes so George and Abe can get in the house without busting a window.

The many Georges and Abes that you see at the mall are just "Helpers."

Kids don't send letters to George and Abe. NSA already knows if they are bad or good. Google knows what they like.

The history lessons here in Weigantia are ALWAYS fascinating! :D

Michale

Every day has multiple dates associated with it: the day known as February 18, 2014 of the Gregorian calendar is not only February 5, 2014 of the Julian calendar, but also Adar I 18, 5774 of the Hebrew calendar; Rabi`ath-Thani 17, 1435 of the Islamic calendar; Bahman 29, 1392 of the Persian calendar; and many more.

(Note that in some calendars, days are reckoned from local midnight to local midnight; in others they're reckoned from local sunset to local sunset; and in yet others they're reckoned from midnight to midnight in Greenwich. So different calendars don't always name the same set of days.)

If you want to celebrate Washington's actual birthday, it's the day containing the instant that's a whole number of calendar years from the actual moment he was born -- no matter what calendar you're using. The ability to say that it's "February 22" without specifying which calendar is just a fluke of the fact that two of the calendars use the same names for the months.

They pretty much thought I was weird, but I was used to that.

Interesting post, but you are confusing "dates" with "numbers" when it comes to Washington's birthday. February 11, 1731 of the Julian calendar IS February 22, 1731 of the Gregorian calendar. The date wasn't "moved," it was TRANSLATED, from the Julian calendar's notation to the Gregorian calendar's notation. There aren't separate Gregorian calendars for each country depending on when they adopted the Gregorian calendar, there's just one Gregorian calendar and dates can be expressed using either it or the Julian calendar. February 11 on our Gregorian calendar would NOT be the same date as Washington's February 11 birthday on his Julian calendar. We celebrate the DATE, not the NUMBER. If anyone using the JULIAN calendar celebrated on February 22 THEN they'd have the wrong date.

Its like binary vs decimal. Just because different combinations of the same symbols (numbers) are used doesn't mean there's a difference in the values (dates) being expressed. Different combinations of numerical symbols can be equivalent in value depending on the notation used to express those values.

We're not celebrating the literal DAY of Washington's birth, there is only one DAY that's February 11, 1731 (J) and February 22, 1731 (G). And we're not celebrating a number, either 11 or 22. We're symbolically recognizing the DAY of Washington's birth by annually honoring similar DATES, which is February 11 (J) AND February 22 (G).

If there's really some academics out there still arguing this I'm glad I could clear it up for them!