How many days should there be in a week? [View All]

[eppur_se_muova]

There are 365.2422 days in a year, and 29.53 days in a month. Neither is cleanly divisible by any integer, but some come closer than others. With a month being almost 30 days, it would seem obvious that a week should have some number of days factoring 30 -- 3, 5, 6, or 10. Likewise, 3, 5, and 6 divide 365 or 366 fairly cleanly. 10 does not, but given that we count in base 10, seems a reasonable choice.

7 divides 28, a worse estimate at the length of a month than 30, and divides 364, not 365 or 366, so 7 seems a pretty poor choice. Only religulous tradition appears to be responsible for the 7-day week.

In a post-faith world, we need something other than a 7-day week. If the number of days in a week were larger, the difference between an x-day work week and an (x-1)-day work week would be smaller, and change to a shorter work week less traumatic, hence less opposed. The intermediate state of some x-day workers and some (x-1)-day workers might have its own advantages, but again, this is less likely to happen if the number of days in a work week is small.

Any other possibilities? A Julian calendar? A monthless/weekless calendar (2010.129 for today, e.g.)? 11- or 13-day weeks (for ISBN consistency)? 8 or 16 day weeks, for programmers?

If response to this poll is insufficient, by default, the Mayan calendar will be reimposed by fiat.