In the spirit of this “Random Things” blog, I’ve thought a bit about simplifying our current calendar. I’m mainly wondering if date calculations would be any easier if a computer used a simplified calendar internally.

Our current calendar became complicated because of leaders that had an ego that exceeded their realization that they were serving their people, insuring they had food, infrastructure, fair laws, etc, etc… er, ah, well… ok, maybe they were just outright dictators and ego is probably an understatement. Anyway, rulers like Julius Caesar and Augustus, etc had to have months named after them… had to have months rearranged so the month named after them came before the month named after the prior ruler… stupid stuff like that. A general google search will get you more information about the “history of the calendar” than you want to know.

Back to my random thoughts…

Calendars must be aligned to the way the earth rotates around the sun, and the way the earth spins about it’s axis… that is, to be accepted by most as a “calendar”. Each rotation of the earth around the sun yields roughly 365.242189 spins of the earth about it’s axis. To account for the excess fractional spin each year (approximately 0.25 of a spin), every four years (roughly) we add an extra day to the year. That means that for every four times the earth rotates around the sun, the earth spins on it’s axis 1461 times (365+365+365+366). But, that’s not entirely true. What about the extra spin per year (365.25 – 365.242189). That is accounted for by making the century years (ie, 2000, 2100) leap years only if they are divisible by 400 (with no remainder). 2000 was a leap year, 2100 is not (or will not be?). It’s getting complicated, even without those ego’s!

For my computer calendar under consideration, I’d make the first year 1 as the first year by our current calendar is 1 AD (Anno Domini [in the year of the Lord]). 1 AD is the beginning of the Christian Era although no one really knows which year Christ was born. The year before 1 AD is 1 BC (Before Christ). There was no year 0. In the recent past, this abbreviation has started to appear: B.C.E. (before the Common/Christian Era) rather than BC and C.E. (the Common/Christian Era) rather than AD. All this is world history (some of it even recent) but not really relevant to the calendar other than to set the epoch for the year of my proposed calendar. Obviously, years will not have names.

The proposed computer calendar won’t have an epoch date of 1, but rather 1753. The computer calendar will not make any calculations prior to 1753. The first date possible with the calendar is Monday, 1-Jan-1753. Why 1753? After research, that’s what I felt like. Do the research and tell me in the comments what you would have picked and why. Maybe you can tell me why I picked 1753. Hint: What happened in 1752?

It’s a given are 7 days in a week. We know that because God rested on the 7th day. The 7th day is also when Chick-fil-A’s employees rest. In our proposed calendar, day 1 is equivalent to our current Monday, 2 is Tuesday, 3 is Wednesday, 4 is Thursday, 5 is Friday, and the weekend consists of day 6 Saturday, and the final day, day 7 is equivalent to our current Sunday. On our calendar, we display the weekend at the end of the week. The days have numbers, but no names.

There are 13 months in a year. 28 days each month. It takes the moon almost near 28 days to rotate around the earth. Pretty unimportant. Other things cycle on 28 days. Pretty unimportant. What is important is that 7 weekdays divides evenly (4) into a 28 day month.
There are 365 or 366 days in a year. 13 months * 28 days/month = 360. What do you do with the remaining 5 or 6 days? Call it the last week of the year? Call it the last month of the year? Both? The last month (or week) has 5 days except leap years, which has 6 days. Let’s just call it a short month… month 14. Rules for society. Month 14 is family month. It’s a long 5-6 month holiday.

Months do not have names. Just numbers, 01 – 13 (with the leading zero). Oh, and 14!
Dates are expressed by YYYY.MMDD where YYYY is the year in the range 1753-9999, MM is the month expressed as 01-13 (oh, and 14!), and DD is the day of the month express as 01-28… (oh, and month 14: 01-05, or 01-06).
Each day is made up of 10 beats. Each of those beats (bt) are made up of 10 deci-beats (db), and each of those is made up of 10 centi-beats (cb).

Conversion from Gregorian calendar / Babylonians time to the Calendar/Time of Troy and vica versa
(beat is 86.400 seconds, deci-beat=8.6400 seconds, centi-beat=.86400 seconds). BTW, a second is defined “by taking the fixed numerical value of the cesium frequency, the unperturbed ground-state hyper-fine transition frequency of the cesium-133 atom, to be 9192631770 when expressed as HZ”

PERPETUAL CALENDAR
All months in the year start on the same day of the week. To determine a yearly calendar, all you need to know is what day of the week is the first day of the year, and if the year is a leap year or not. You can use the exact same monthly representation of the calendar for all 13 months in the year. Oh, and month 14 simply gets truncated to 6 days if it’s a leap year, or 5 days if it’s not a leap year.

The formula to determine a leap year is calculated as:
leapYear = (year % 4 == 0 && year % 1000 != 0) || year % 400 == 0;
Basically, every year divisible by four without a remainder is a leap year except centuries (which are not leap years), with the further exception of 2000, 2400, 2800, etc (centuries dividable by 400 with no remainder, which is are leap years).

Here are the possible “exact same monthly representations of the calendar. Just pick the proper one of seven possible calendars for your given year.

Days are titled D1 for the first day of the week through D7 for the 7th day of the week.

To determine the first day of the year, use this chart for each year 1753 through 2100.

First day number of the month / Year number / Leap Year or not
1 1753/False
2 1754/False
3 1755/False
4 1756/True
6 1757/False
7 1758/False
1 1759/False
2 1760/True
4 1761/False
5 1762/False
6 1763/False
7 1764/True
2 1765/False
3 1766/False
4 1767/False
5 1768/True
7 1769/False
1 1770/False
2 1771/False
3 1772/True
5 1773/False
6 1774/False
7 1775/False
1 1776/True
3 1777/False
4 1778/False
5 1779/False
6 1780/True
1 1781/False
2 1782/False
3 1783/False
4 1784/True
6 1785/False
7 1786/False
1 1787/False
2 1788/True
4 1789/False
5 1790/False
6 1791/False
7 1792/True
2 1793/False
3 1794/False
4 1795/False
5 1796/True
7 1797/False
1 1798/False
2 1799/False
3 1800/False
4 1801/False
5 1802/False
6 1803/False
7 1804/True
2 1805/False
3 1806/False
4 1807/False
5 1808/True
7 1809/False
1 1810/False
2 1811/False
3 1812/True
5 1813/False
6 1814/False
7 1815/False
1 1816/True
3 1817/False
4 1818/False
5 1819/False
6 1820/True
1 1821/False
2 1822/False
3 1823/False
4 1824/True
6 1825/False
7 1826/False
1 1827/False
2 1828/True
4 1829/False
5 1830/False
6 1831/False
7 1832/True
2 1833/False
3 1834/False
4 1835/False
5 1836/True
7 1837/False
1 1838/False
2 1839/False
3 1840/True
5 1841/False
6 1842/False
7 1843/False
1 1844/True
3 1845/False
4 1846/False
5 1847/False
6 1848/True
1 1849/False
2 1850/False
3 1851/False
4 1852/True
6 1853/False
7 1854/False
1 1855/False
2 1856/True
4 1857/False
5 1858/False
6 1859/False
7 1860/True
2 1861/False
3 1862/False
4 1863/False
5 1864/True
7 1865/False
1 1866/False
2 1867/False
3 1868/True
5 1869/False
6 1870/False
7 1871/False
1 1872/True
3 1873/False
4 1874/False
5 1875/False
6 1876/True
1 1877/False
2 1878/False
3 1879/False
4 1880/True
6 1881/False
7 1882/False
1 1883/False
2 1884/True
4 1885/False
5 1886/False
6 1887/False
7 1888/True
2 1889/False
3 1890/False
4 1891/False
5 1892/True
7 1893/False
1 1894/False
2 1895/False
3 1896/True
5 1897/False
6 1898/False
7 1899/False
1 1900/False
2 1901/False
3 1902/False
4 1903/False
5 1904/True
7 1905/False
1 1906/False
2 1907/False
3 1908/True
5 1909/False
6 1910/False
7 1911/False
1 1912/True
3 1913/False
4 1914/False
5 1915/False
6 1916/True
1 1917/False
2 1918/False
3 1919/False
4 1920/True
6 1921/False
7 1922/False
1 1923/False
2 1924/True
4 1925/False
5 1926/False
6 1927/False
7 1928/True
2 1929/False
3 1930/False
4 1931/False
5 1932/True
7 1933/False
1 1934/False
2 1935/False
3 1936/True
5 1937/False
6 1938/False
7 1939/False
1 1940/True
3 1941/False
4 1942/False
5 1943/False
6 1944/True
1 1945/False
2 1946/False
3 1947/False
4 1948/True
6 1949/False
7 1950/False
1 1951/False
2 1952/True
4 1953/False
5 1954/False
6 1955/False
7 1956/True
2 1957/False
3 1958/False
4 1959/False
5 1960/True
7 1961/False
1 1962/False
2 1963/False
3 1964/True
5 1965/False
6 1966/False
7 1967/False
1 1968/True
3 1969/False
4 1970/False
5 1971/False
6 1972/True
1 1973/False
2 1974/False
3 1975/False
4 1976/True
6 1977/False
7 1978/False
1 1979/False
2 1980/True
4 1981/False
5 1982/False
6 1983/False
7 1984/True
2 1985/False
3 1986/False
4 1987/False
5 1988/True
7 1989/False
1 1990/False
2 1991/False
3 1992/True
5 1993/False
6 1994/False
7 1995/False
1 1996/True
3 1997/False
4 1998/False
5 1999/False
6 2000/True
1 2001/False
2 2002/False
3 2003/False
4 2004/True
6 2005/False
7 2006/False
1 2007/False
2 2008/True
4 2009/False
5 2010/False
6 2011/False
7 2012/True
2 2013/False
3 2014/False
4 2015/False
5 2016/True
7 2017/False
1 2018/False
2 2019/False
3 2020/True
5 2021/False
6 2022/False
7 2023/False
1 2024/True
3 2025/False
4 2026/False
5 2027/False
6 2028/True
1 2029/False
2 2030/False
3 2031/False
4 2032/True
6 2033/False
7 2034/False
1 2035/False
2 2036/True
4 2037/False
5 2038/False
6 2039/False
7 2040/True
2 2041/False
3 2042/False
4 2043/False
5 2044/True
7 2045/False
1 2046/False
2 2047/False
3 2048/True
5 2049/False
6 2050/False
7 2051/False
1 2052/True
3 2053/False
4 2054/False
5 2055/False
6 2056/True
1 2057/False
2 2058/False
3 2059/False
4 2060/True
6 2061/False
7 2062/False
1 2063/False
2 2064/True
4 2065/False
5 2066/False
6 2067/False
7 2068/True
2 2069/False
3 2070/False
4 2071/False
5 2072/True
7 2073/False
1 2074/False
2 2075/False
3 2076/True
5 2077/False
6 2078/False
7 2079/False
1 2080/True
3 2081/False
4 2082/False
5 2083/False
6 2084/True
1 2085/False
2 2086/False
3 2087/False
4 2088/True
6 2089/False
7 2090/False
1 2091/False
2 2092/True
4 2093/False
5 2094/False
6 2095/False
7 2096/True
2 2097/False
3 2098/False
4 2099/False
5 2100/False

So, now my challenge in to implement the above design in a Linux environment and work on standard date calculations needed for general purpose use, and even those required for accounting and bookkeeping to see if they’re easier and/or more reliable.

So that it’s clear that my random thoughts are in good company, have a look at these other alternative calendars.

Keywords: alternative calendar, calendars, standard computer calendar, logical months, simplified calendar.