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a us physicist is lobbying for people to adopt his novel calendar in which every date falls on the same day of the week each year.

the current calendar, which runs for 365 days, was instituted by pope gregory in 1582 to bring the length of the year in line with the seasons. but because the earth actually orbits the sun every 365.24 days, a 366-day "leap year" must be added every four years to account for the extra fraction of a day. in this gregorian system, a given date (such as new year's day) falls on different days of the week in different years because 365 is not evenly divisible by seven.

that means new calendars must be printed every year, and the dates for recurring events constantly recalculated. "for many years, i've had to make up a new schedule to tell my class when homework is due," says dick henry, a physicist at johns hopkins university in baltimore, maryland, us. "here i am putting all this totally unnecessary work in and i decided i better do something about it."

so henry designed a calendar that uses 364 days, which breaks down evenly into 52 weeks. in his so called "calendar-and-time" (c&t) plan, each month contains 30 or 31 days. he decided on each month's length by forbidding the new calendar to differ from the old one by more than five days and by setting christmas day, 25 december, to always fall on a sunday.

extra week
his constraints meant eight months would have different lengths than they do now. march, june, september, and december would each contain 31 days, while the other months would each get 30. to keep the calendar in synchronisation with the seasons, henry inserted an extra week - which is not part of any month - every five or six years. he named the addition "newton week" in honour of his favourite physicist, isaac newton.

"if i had my way, everyone would get newton week off as a paid vacation and could spend the time doing physics, or other activities of their choice," he says.

despite this incentive, henry says he has encountered resistance to his plan - mainly because people would be "stuck" with a birthday that always falls on a wednesday, for example. henry, who is among that group, is not moved by the argument. "you have my permission to celebrate your birthday the preceding or following saturday," he says.

and what of the people born on dates that no longer exists in the new calendar, such as 31 january, or during newton week? henry suggests they celebrate on either 30 january or "consider themselves to be born on the fourth of july" (which falls on a wednesday).

sacrosanct seven
"i think such a calendar would be extremely useful," says owen gingerich, an astronomer and historian of science at harvard university in cambridge, massachusetts, us. he says previous calendar reform efforts have "crashed" because they disturbed the seven-day week considered sacrosanct by religious groups. efforts have involved adding an extra, unnamed day at the end of the year or, as happened after the french revolution, implementing 10-day weeks.

"this is the first proposal i'm aware of that gets into a standard calendar but doesn't have the pattern of seven upset," gingerich told new scientist. he notes the world was slow to adopt the gregorian calendar. england and its colonies did not switch to the system until 1752, nearly 200 years after rome began using it.

henry hopes to have rallied enough support for his plan to start it on 1 january 2006, when new year's day in both the old and new calendars falls on a sunday. and he is not stopping with dates - henry says the entire world should operate on greenwich mean time. people in the eastern us, for example, would have to get used to eating their midday meals when the clocks read 1700. "people are adaptable if benefits are there," says henry.

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op dinsdag 4 januari 2005 13:17 schreef christine het volgende:
ik snap het niet helemaal: zo krijg je toch dat de seizoenen langzaam verschuiven? dus je hebt het voordeel dat kerst altijd op een zondag valt, maar het nadeel dat over 200 jaar kerst hier in de zomer valt.
of heeft hij daar ook een trucje voor?

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henry inserted an extra week - which is not part of any month - every five or six years. he named the addition "newton week" in honour of his favourite physicist, isaac newton.

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op dinsdag 4 januari 2005 13:17 schreef christine het volgende:
ik snap het niet helemaal: zo krijg je toch dat de seizoenen langzaam verschuiven? dus je hebt het voordeel dat kerst altijd op een zondag valt, maar het nadeel dat over 200 jaar kerst hier in de zomer valt.
of heeft hij daar ook een trucje voor?

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op dinsdag 4 januari 2005 14:26 schreef mizzenroe het volgende:
of we laten het gewoon zoals het is.

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op dinsdag 4 januari 2005 18:34 schreef alicey het volgende:
hoe zit het dan met mensen die worden geboren in de newtonweek?

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op dinsdag 4 januari 2005 22:46 schreef babewatcher het volgende:
mijn idee: dagen afschaffen. geloven doe je maar thuis in je vrije tijd, maar ga daar niet de samenleving mee lastig vallen door een vrije dag op te dringen. in cao's is geregeld dat er maximaal 6 aaneengesloten dagen mag worden gewerkt en in 13 weken maximaal 65 dagen mag worden gewerkt.
gewoon met dag 1 beginnen en tot 365 of 366 nummeren
nu is het dag 4 jaar 2004, veel simpeler dan dinsdag vierde dag eerste maand 2004e jaar.

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op woensdag 5 januari 2005 10:25 schreef wheeledwarrior het volgende:
alsof het zo moeilijk is de juiste dag in het juiste jaar uit het hoofd te berekenen. dat doe ik al jaren, is gewoon een trucje voor. vind het juist wel wat hebben dat de datum elk jaar 1 (of 2) dagen verspringt.

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op woensdag 5 januari 2005 10:25 schreef wheeledwarrior het volgende:
alsof het zo moeilijk is de juiste dag in het juiste jaar uit het hoofd te berekenen. dat doe ik al jaren, is gewoon een trucje voor. vind het juist wel wat hebben dat de datum elk jaar 1 (of 2) dagen verspringt.

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op woensdag 5 januari 2005 15:12 schreef pfaf het volgende:
beetje onzinnig. als je iets wilt wijzigen, wijzig dan meteen alles. af van die 24 en 60's etc.