How many days should there be in a week?

[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.

[Forkboy]

1. Even 3 is too damn many.

I say we need one day...we'll call it Funday!

[velvet]

2. 8 days a week is not enough to show I care

The first French Republic introduced the metric system of weights and measures, and a fine thing it is too. They also made a valiant but flawed attempt to do a similar thing with time.

The French Republican Calendar, in use from 1793 to 1806, had 10-hour days, 10-day weeks and twelve 3-week months per year. Five extra days and six in leap years were national holidays occurring at the end of each year. The year began at the autumn equinox.

The tenth day of the week was the day of rest.

The days and months were all renamed. If we were living under the French Republican Calendar today we would be in the month of Floreal and today would be Decadi.

Wikipedia has a comprehensive article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Republican_Calendar I'll just quote the paragraph on the main reasons the calendar was not a success ...

"The calendar was abolished because having a ten-day working week gave workers less rest (one day off every ten instead of one day off every seven); because the equinox was a mobile date to start every new year (a fantastic source of confusion for almost everybody); and because it was incompatible with the secular rhythms of trade fairs and agricultural markets. Another criticism of the calendar was that despite the poetic names of its months, they are tied to the climate and agriculture of France and therefore not applicable to France's overseas territories."

[eppur_se_muova]

11. ... and only the name "Thermidor" survives, in Lobster Thermidor. nt

[Dr Morbius]

3. Three ten-days a month; twelve months a year...

...and five holidays that don't enter into the ten-day cycle. But I'd also be fine with leaving the calendar alone. Maybe, though, it's time we considered putting "AD" behind us.

Ever read the Constitution? Sure you have, but there's something very interesting written there which may apply here. At the beginning of Article VII, it reads:

Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth. In Witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names.

Note they put down the year 1787 and also the year 12, in case future generations decided to use a different calendar. I've thought about this: basically, subtract 1775 (* see below) from the current year AD (anno domini) for the year AA (anno americanus). The Civil War began in 81 AA. The Spanish-American war started and ended in 123 AA. I was born in 186 AA, and my wife in 188 AA; the year the Beatles came. Remember Ronald Reagan and the election of 205? The confusing thing about this is that our nation began on the 4th of July, so the year would begin and end with this date. Today would be 234 AA, and it wouldn't be 235 for a couple more months. Back then, of course, the year began in March.

* - if today is before July 4, subtract 1776; if after, subtract 1775.

[miscsoc]

4. The Soviet Union tried some rather elaborate calendar systems

Involving 5/6 day weeks and rotating "weekend" days for different workers in their early period of utopian experimentation. Ditched it in 1940 for some reason. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_calendar

[eppur_se_muova]

10. That was muddled, but interesting. :^)

I knew about the French revolutionary calendar; didn't occur to me that the Soviets would have tried the same thing (but of course it should have ;)).

[Bucky]

15. I'll tell ya why they ditched it. Because like all communist ideas, they don't work.

It was a silly effort to relegislate human nature. If the numbnuts who redestroyed Russia were born 100 years in the USA, they'd all be slacking their way through MBA school right now.

[surrealAmerican]

5. It's not only religious tradition.

It's lunar cycles. I have no problem with the length of a week approximating a quarter of a lunar cycle. It's a quaint little tie with the world we live in.

[abq e streeter]

6. Voted 6,having gone to a college where there was a Society for the Prevention of Thursdays

SPOT.....This idea apparently has never taken off however.

[Ghost of Tom Joad]

7. I would pick 5, work five days have 5 days off

[The2ndWheel]

8. No thanks

The 21st century thing doesn't make much sense either. Shouldn't it be at least the 40,000,000th century? Give or take.

No days, no weeks, no hours, or minutes. Sick of the whole production frankly.

[old mark]

9. 10 - The metric week. 36.5 weeks per metric year, with an extra day every so often

to reconcile it all. 6 days of work, 4 days off per metric week. 6 hour work days, 1 hr for lunch for everyone = 42 hours per week of work.

mark

[fishwax]

12. I'm fine with the seven day weeks

I don't see a huge advantage in weeks being trimmed to more closely match the lengths of months.

[BlueJazz]

13. 6 Days...4 for work...2 for play.

[quakerboy]

14. Can someone make a handy chaotic system

Where the hours, days, weeks, months and years never quite line up, leading to great confusion (say, keep 24 hour days, 7 day weeks, months, etc as they are, but base all scheduling on a 26 hour cycle, in groups of 8 cycles, 5 groups to a metagroup, and some other measurement with another unspecified name. Just to keep people on their toes.

[eppur_se_muova]

18. Sounds like the Invisible Hand of the Free Market at work! :^D

At one time, decisions regarding insertion of extra days (or even months) into the calendar were made by local priests, who tended to add extra time when their friends were in office. So travelling from town to town could not only take you from one time zone to another, but even to a different year!

[Bucky]

16. Actually a 12 month year of 360 days, 30 per month, would work out perfectly

Just so long as you could find some way to speed up the earth's rotation just a might so that 360 days makes a full year. Sure, it's a hell of a job, but I think it would be worth it.

[Wapsie B]

17. 7 in a calendar week is ok. But 4 in a work week should be the maximum.

[quakerboy]

19. 3 twelves and 4 days off

It is to dream

[kedrys]

20. I had that schedule once, but

I was on call for two of the 4. :D

[Recovered Repug]

21. 13 months each 28 days long.

The first would always be a Monday and the 28th always on a Sunday. The extra 1 or 2 days can be considered New Years.

[hippywife]

22. The number of days in a week

is neither here nor there. It's the number of days I have to work in a week that truly matter. :D

[Captain Hilts]

23. "And the Eighth Day shall be called 'Ringo'." nt