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Archiver > TMG > 2002-10 > 1033486403


From: Virginia Sandstedt <>
Subject: Re: [TMG] OT Re: Length of a year and more trivia
Date: Tue, 01 Oct 2002 08:33:33 -0700
References: <200210010024.g910O1WI023951@mail.infinetivity.com>
In-Reply-To: <5.1.0.14.0.20021001004834.00a04cd0@pop.sprynet.com>


Hi Darrell

The journal's name is "Chemical & Engineering News: The Newsmagazine of the
Chemical World" published by the American Chemical Society. "C&EN" is its
usual abbreviation.

Ginny

At 01-10-02 01:12 AM-0500, you wrote:

>J.R.R. Tolkien, who invented several calendars as well as languages, had
>as the "standard" calendar of Middle-earth ("King's Reckoning") one that
>was more accurate than the Gregorian. Tolkien stated that Middle-earth was
>"our world" in an imaginary time; he was quite meticulous about such
>things as seasons, phases of the moon, and the like, and provided a
>tropical year length of 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes and 46 seconds.
>Anyway, in K.R. no century year was a leap year; but every millennial year
>had TWO "leap days", the second of which was a cause for much pomp and
>ceremony. This made the year length of K.R.
>
> 365.242 days, or .0001934+ days too SHORT (and getting a tiny
> bit *closer* each year)
>
>This earned him an interesting trivia mention in "Chemical Engineering
>News" (if I recall the name of the periodical correctly) a number of years
>ago. And if you *really* want trivia, the Hobbits' version of K.R. did not
>assign a day of the week to Mid-Summer's Day (or a leap day when it
>occurred); so every day of their calendar occurred on the same day of the
>week every year.




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