Chapter 461 The Disappearing Leap Year
After determining gravity as the anchor point, the only problem became how to convert the number of gravity into length.
And it is best to use whatever weight vessel is used to measure it, the result will not change.
The busy discussion among the engineering priests gradually stopped. They scratched their scalps, wrinkled their noses, and wrote and drew on the ground, but they still couldn't figure it out.
Horn interrupted the discussion of the engineering priests with a smile: "In fact, natural sites that are not disturbed by measuring instruments exist."
"What is it?"
Horn did not speak, but pointed towards the corner of the small office building not far in front of him.
On the ground paved with stones and wooden boards, a large pendulum clock as tall as a person was leaning quietly in the corner.
"Ah, I understand." After doubts and thinking, a former watchmaker suddenly slapped his head, "Pendulum!"
"Hahahaha." Horn laughed. , he finally heard the answer he wanted, which was also the answer that Shilov had discussed with him.
Take advantage of the pendulum effect.
Although the civilization of the empire has declined, the Aiel people have slowly discovered the pendulum effect, but they have not yet made a conclusion.
But Horn knows that when a pendulum makes a round-trip periodic motion, the time of one round-trip is related to the length of the pendulum and the acceleration of gravity, but has nothing to do with the amplitude and the mass of the pendulum ball.
In other words, no matter how heavy the pendulum ball is or how large its amplitude is, the swing time is only related to the length of the pendulum and gravity.
Ignore the small differences in gravity in different regions, then as long as the same time for one swing is specified, the length of the pendulum must be the same.
No matter what kind of pendulum they use and what amplitude they use, as long as the time for one round trip is the same, then the length of the pendulum must be the same.
Although there is still some error, it is definitely much smaller than the current errors of these old systems.
"That's easy." The clockmaker's voice gradually became louder, but when he noticed that Horn was looking at him, his voice immediately became quieter.
"Hey, are you shy?" Horn waved to him, "What do you think, let me see?"
Under the gaze of other engineering priests, the watchmaker He walked out coyly: "My humble opinion is that you set 24 hours a day and 86,400 seconds.
We select a pendulum clock, and when it swings exactly 86,400 times a day, record its pendulum length and set it as a standard unit of length. "
"We use the transliteration of Laiya, the length unit of the ancient El Empire, and temporarily call it Nemamit, or Miba for short. "Horn continued along with his thoughts.
"Your Majesty, wouldn't this mean that it would take a day at a time? "
" Stupid. "As soon as the man finished speaking, the companion next to him began to refute him, "Bring a normal pendulum clock yourself and compare it, wouldn't you know? "
"What if there is no normal pendulum clock, or the normal pendulum clock happens to be broken? ”
"If there is no clock in the village, go to the town. If the clock in the town is broken, go to the city."
These people are the smartest citizens, and many of them are even senior citizens. Those who have gone to college can quickly draw inferences from one instance to another.
“How about all cities adjust the same time in the future, once a month, and use our Qiumu Island labor clock as the basis.”
“In this way, we will use Qiumu Island’s labor clock as the basis. Wouldn’t it be enough to use 24 hours on one day of the year to determine the length, and then update the standard measuring tape once a year?”
Seeing their excitement, Horn did not get excited along with them.
Because he knew that this problem was far from being as simple as imagined.
This world has festivals like Winter Solstice, and there are four seasons, which must mean that there is an angular deviation between the continent and the sun.
Then the time between sunrise on the first day and sunrise on the second day is not necessarily 24 hours. It is normal to have an error of a few seconds. When these small errors accumulate, they turn into a huge error, which is a leap month.
So according to common sense, this world should have leap years and peace years.
But the amazing thing is that in the ancient Seven Hills period and even in the early Ayr Empire, there were records of leap years.
On the contrary, when the empire moved eastward, leap years had magically disappeared.
Even scholars at the time ridiculed leap years as a flaw in the ancient Ayr almanac, saying, "A day that does not exist is created every four years."
As for the early days of the Ayr Empire Horn could not find any historical data on what changes had taken place in the almanac between the time when the empire moved eastward.
Until now, there is no leap year setting in any almanac.
What is most difficult for Horn to understand is that although there is no leap year, the farming season in the almanac is not delayed at all.
If there were no leap years, then the almanac would have been in chaos long ago.
But the Millennium Almanac published by the church is still running normally.
Considering that this is a world with magic and witches, Horn reasonably doubts whether magic is causing these anomalies.
So he hopes that these priests from the Engineering Research Institute can cooperate with the wizards to start a real scientific research project.
They need to take a pendulum clock to various places to measure time and find out whether the "disappeared leap year" has really disappeared or just disappeared from the almanac.
"Your Majesty." While others were discussing, the engineering priest who just proposed measuring time and length quietly walked up to Horn, "The unit of length has been determined, but what about weight and capacity?"< br>
Horn glanced at him: "What's your name?"
"Hawk Compno." The engineering priest lowered his head and responded.
"Compno? Who are you, Robert?" This is a rare surname, and Horn immediately thought of Robert Compno from the White Mountain Hermitage, "Stand up straight and talk to me. .”
"It's my brother." Hawke quickly straightened his back, "But my magic power is too low and my talent is very poor. I usually earn a living by carving and making water clocks for dignitaries.
Last year, I was reported by my peers as a wizard. , just went home to help Robert."
"Okay, good boy, don't worry, your achievements here will not be less than Robert's." Horn patted his butt and stood up, coming to the group of people arguing. Around engineering priests.
"Silence!" the gendarmes shouted in unison, and the priests immediately stopped talking.
“After we calculate the meter based on the length of the pendulum, we define the length, width and height as one meter as one cubic meter, and one cubic meter of water as one ton. In this way, we have length, volume, and weight. All the weights and measures are out," Horn explained to the priests.
"From now on, all markets must use standard weights and measures, and market clerks must check them regularly to prevent cheating by relying on weights and measures to cause shortages of pounds and ounces."
"This is better than killing those Ayr people. My father is still feeling uncomfortable..." I don't know who said it secretly, and the engineering priests couldn't help but laugh out loud.
But Sisi rubbed his head and questioned: "With this implementation, everyone will suddenly be in chaos, fearing that someone will take advantage of the chaos to make profits."
"It doesn't matter, we can use the metric system and The old system goes hand in hand. Anyway, the Papal Palace uses the metric system for tax collection and business." With a wave of his hand, Horn determined the future weights and measures system.
“So, the task I give you is to go to various places to test the pendulum length and time. After the test is completed, establish a set of standard weights and measures molds as soon as possible.
Later adjustments should be completed before next year's autumn harvest as much as possible. You will hold a meeting to determine the specific matters, and then give me a timetable and milestone list.
The main persons in charge of this mission are, well, my secretary, the monk Bonade, and this Father Hawke. ”
(End of this chapter)