Question 1

What is French Revolutionary time?

Accepted Answer

French Revolutionary time (1793-1805) decimalized time: 10-hour days, 100-minute hours, 100-second minutes. A decimal second was 0.864 standard seconds.

Question 2

Why did time systems change?

Accepted Answer

The 24-hour day from ancient Egypt/Babylon became standard. Revolutionary France tried decimalization for consistency, but tradition prevailed. Modern UTC unifies global timekeeping.

Question 3

How accurate were historical timekeeping methods?

Accepted Answer

Sundials: within minutes on sunny days. Water clocks: 15-30 minute accuracy. Mechanical clocks (14th century): within 15 minutes/day. Modern atomic clocks: 1 second error in millions of years.

Question 4

What other time systems exist?

Accepted Answer

Swatch Internet Time divides the day into 1000 beats. Unix time counts seconds since 1970. Stardate (Star Trek) and metric time are fictional systems occasionally referenced.

French Revolutionary Time Converter

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