The Lukashian Calendar is a calendar that is based on the principle that a calendar is not a way to measure durations of time, but instead, a way to model the movements of the Earth in the solar system in a way that is useful to people on Earth.
The Lukashian Calendar has only years, days and beeps, nothing else.
Main[]
A year is defined as a solar Earth year, that runs from a southern solstice (inclusive) to the next southern solstice (exclusive) exactly, i.e. a single rotation of the Earth around the Sun, in terms of the cycle of the seasons. The first year is year 1 and years before year 1 are not defined.
A day is defined as a solar Earth day, i.e. a single rotation of the Earth around its own axis, in terms of its angle towards the Sun. A day also runs from its start (inclusive) to its end (exclusive).
This means that, due to astronomical and planetary developments, the durations of the years and days in milliseconds are not fixed. For example, the difference between the shortest and the longest day of the year can be almost 50 seconds (not to be confused with "daytime", when it's light outside). By embracing this and designing the calendar around variable durations of days and years, it is no longer necessary to shoehorn a reality without fixed durations into a calendar system with fixed durations. This means no more leap seconds and leap days.
The turn of a year generally does not coincide with the turn of a day. The first day of every year is day 1. A day is part of the year that it starts in, even if it finishes in the next year. This automatically results in some years having one more day than others, making leap days unnecessary.
Time[]
Since the duration of a day is not constant, fixed-duration units, like hours and minutes, cannot be used for timekeeping. Therefore, the time of day is simply expressed as the proportion of the day that has passed. To achieve the desired scale, this proportion is represented in terms of per-myriad or basis points. This is a number that runs from 0 (inclusive) to 9999 (inclusive). The time of day is therefore expressed as, for example, 5628, when 56.28% of the day has passed.
The Lukashian Calendar does not have time zones, so it is the same time everywhere on the planet.
This is how long various amounts of beeps approximately are, for intuitive use:
| Beeps | Unit | Equivalence |
|---|---|---|
| 10000 beeps | 1 day | |
| 1000 beeps | 1 kilobeep, deciday | approximately 2½ hours |
| 100 beeps | 1 hectobeep, centiday | approximately 15 minutes |
| 10 beeps | 1 moment, dekabeep, milliday | approximately 1½ minutes |
| 1 beep | approximately 8½ seconds | |
The start[]
The start of the Lukashian Calendar is called the Lukashian Epoch. This instant is also the start of the very first day and the very first year. The Lukashian Epoch is at the exact instant of a particular southern solstice. This southern solstice that was chosen, is the one that took place 3900 years before 0 A.D. Gregorian, leading to a situation where:
- The turn of day is at or around nighttime for the vast majority of the world's population (from westernmost Europe to easternmost Asia).
- All of human history for which there exists a known, accurate time can be expressed in the Lukashian Calendar, so "Before Zero" dates aren't needed.
- The last 2 digits of the Lukashian year are the same as the Gregorian year for most of the year.
Mechanism[]
The underlying mechanism of the Lukashian Calendar does not depend on the actual durations of the years and days and the actual starting point of the calendar. This means that the Lukashian Calendar Mechanism can also be used to define other calendars, for example a calendar that models years and days on Mars instead of Earth. It allows you to plug in the durations of the years and days in milliseconds, according to whichever definition of year and day you choose, along with the starting point of the calendar, and the Lukashian Calendar Mechanism will work.
Benefits[]
- Simplicity: having no minutes, hours, weeks, weeknumbers, weekdays, months, time zones, leap days, leap seconds, Greenwich, Summer time, AM/PM, complex rules and legacy issues.
- Ease of learning: The Lukashian Calendar is not only easy to understand, but also opens the way to new learning methods as children can easily make the connection with astronomy and play with their own "calendars", where they can change the durations of years and days and see what happens.
- Using beeps to represent the time of day gives a better understanding of the proportions of time that spent on certain things, such as work or leisure, since beeps are inherently a proportion.
- In an increasingly globalized world, the drawbacks of having time zones might outnumber the benefits.
References[]
For a more complete explanation, a working technical implementation and a clock displaying the current date and time, please see lukashian.org.