Happy Summer Solstice…I love 14h 54m of daylight in a day, don’t you? They’re getting 17h 37m in Glasgow, Scotland and 20h 57m in Reykjavik, Iceland today.
Want to find out how many daylight hours today where you live? Visit www.sunrisesunset.com Remember: 24 hour time and base 60 math!*
* Base 60 math because you are working with clock time not regular numbers. To figure my location, Washington, DC:
Sunset – Sunrise = # daylight hours
Sunrise: 5:42am (converts to 24 hour time as 05:42)
Sunset: 8:36pm (converts to 24 hour time as 20:36)
20:36 – 05:42 = # daylight hours
Since you can’t subtract 42 minutes from 36 minutes you have to do the carry over but here is where the base 60 math comes in…you add 60 instead of 10 when you do the carry over so:
20:36 becomes 19:96 (19h 96m) (instead of becoming 19-5, 13-4, 6-2 as it would in base 10)
resulting in:
19:96 – 05:42 = 14h 54m
Yes, I know. I am a geek.
You know your sum is wrong?
Basically, 0542 till 2036 is almost the same as saying 0542 to 2042, therefore 15hrs. Then you subtract the difference between 2042 and 2036 (6mins), thus making it 14hrs and 54mins.
I had to skim over that math part, for the sake of my poor little brain. But happy Solstice!