3
$\begingroup$

Have you ever seen a scientific paper/document that uses the decimal time introduced during the French Revolution?

I'm not looking for any paper that uses decimal time like in astronomy, but instead I look for a scientific paper made during the French Revolution when the metric time was official. Possibly, I'm trying to find a paper where some physical phenomena is measured in the metric seconds/minutes/hours.

$\endgroup$
8
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ Have you a source showing that decimal/metric time was ever 'official' in revolutionary France? Yes it was proposed and a few decimal clocks made, but that's not the same thing. $\endgroup$
    – terry-s
    Jan 22, 2019 at 20:58
  • $\begingroup$ I've seen scientific instruments (clocks and angle measuring tools) with decimal division. Sometimes (rarely) they can be found on e-bay. Since they were produced, I believe they were also used. $\endgroup$ Jan 23, 2019 at 17:42
  • $\begingroup$ @terry-s i may look it up but I think it was official according to Wikipedia article "Decimal Time". Now that I read it more carefully it was officially official for one year between 1794 and 1795 $\endgroup$
    – Mauricio
    Jan 24, 2019 at 11:35
  • $\begingroup$ Why do you exclude astronomy, the area where the decimal division of the day is most useful? For example, the period of revolution of Mars is 686.979579 days or 1y 321d 23h 30′ 35″6. The decimal version is convenient in calculations where time is a multiplier or a divisor, like in the third law of Kepler. In ~1799, Laplace used the decimal division of the day in 'Traitè de mécanique céleste', and in 'The System of the World'. Maybe he also used the pendulum formula, which contains the oscillation time as a multiplier, but that time is not measured in days. $\endgroup$
    – jkien
    Jan 26, 2019 at 13:54
  • $\begingroup$ Lavoisier had his head chopped off before he could publish anything, and Carnot was probably too busy. $\endgroup$
    – Spencer
    Jan 26, 2019 at 18:57

0

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.