Andrew Ducker (andrewducker) wrote,
Andrew Ducker
andrewducker

A question of time

I said "Hang on ten seconds" to Sophia, which then had me wondering when the "second" became a common unit, and then going looking for other time keeping systems, discovering that both Sumeria and China had different time keeping divisions but ours is based on the Egyptian one, that the "second" is based on a "second of arc" because of sundials, and it wasn't measurable until the 1500s.

Which was a lovely excursion. The one thing I didn't find was when the second became a common term in discussion. When did people start saying "With you in a second"?
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