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| 9 new of 133 responses total. |
mynxcat
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response 125 of 133:
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Jun 14 14:08 UTC 2002 |
This response has been erased.
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bhelliom
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response 126 of 133:
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Jun 14 14:19 UTC 2002 |
The Chinese calendar, no longer in official use, is as well, which is
why Chinese New Year has such a kooky placement on the calendar from
one year to the next. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the jewish
calendar (I do not know what it's officially called, pardon me if I've
committed a faux pas) also a lunar calendar?
JMsaul . . . does he at least get a parting gift?
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aruba
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response 127 of 133:
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Jun 14 14:28 UTC 2002 |
The moslem calendar is a strictly lunar calendar; it advances with the
moon and doesn't pay attention to the sun at all. Likewise the Gregorian
calendar (the one most westerners are used to) is a strictly solar
calendar. While we have months, which are a holdover from paying attenion
to the moon, they don't actually correspond to the phases of the moon in
any simple way.
The Jewish calendar is a "lunasolar" calendar, in that it pays attention to
both. The months *do* correspond to phases of the moon (quite closely), and
the years correspond to orbits about the sun, in the long run.
This is accomplished by using the fact that 19 years is very close to
exactly 235 months (or "lunations", to be more precise - a lunation is the
time from one new moon to the next.) So the Jewish calendar is on a 19 year
cycle. Seven of the years in one cycle have 13 months, and the rest have 12
months. There are a few rather obtuse rules that change things by a day or
two here or there, designed to prevent certain holy days from falling on
certain days of the week, but that's basically it.
My understanding is that ancient Jewish astronomers accomplished the
astonishing feat of measuring the length of a lunation (which is about 29.5
days) to within half a second of the actual value.
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jmsaul
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response 128 of 133:
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Jun 14 15:15 UTC 2002 |
Re #126: Yes -- a diploma from the mail-order university of his choice!
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rcurl
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response 129 of 133:
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Jun 14 15:23 UTC 2002 |
Quite right - I was calling the current calendar Julian, but it really is
Gregorian. For more than you want to know about these calendars (and others)
try http://serendipity.magnet.ch/hermetic/cal_stud/cal_art.htm.
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bhelliom
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response 130 of 133:
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Jun 14 16:56 UTC 2002 |
Sweet. . . Perhaps one of those nifty vocational correspondence
schools, where you can major in anything from vet science to business
management or accounting?
Mark, I'm going to have to come back to your post. I can never process
that kind of data when I've got a headache. :)
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jaklumen
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response 131 of 133:
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Jun 14 18:34 UTC 2002 |
resp:129 hahaha.. no, I'm sorry. But I was beginning to wonder.
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mary
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response 132 of 133:
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Jun 14 21:12 UTC 2002 |
And that is an example of why I never jump over one of
Mark's posts.
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bhelliom
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response 133 of 133:
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Jun 20 20:39 UTC 2002 |
Mary, I'll definitely have to remember that.
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