Services on Demand
Journal
Article
Indicators
- Cited by SciELO
- Access statistics
Related links
- Similars in SciELO
Share
Agricultura, sociedad y desarrollo
Print version ISSN 1870-5472
Abstract
MIRANDA-COLIN, Salvador; SANTOS-GONZALEZ, Arturo and CASAS-DIAZ, Eduardo. The adjustment of the earth time rotation in pre-columbian time. agric. soc. desarro [online]. 2004, vol.1, n.1, pp.73-83. ISSN 1870-5472.
The results of this investigation show that the pre-Columbian man discovered that the Earth's rotation lasted 23 hours, 56 minutes and four seconds. In order to register this movement, the pre-Columbian man invented the average solar day of 24 hours, here the hour had 60 minutes and every minute 60 seconds. In a day, the Earth's rotation was ahead to the average solar day by four minutes minus four seconds, but this difference was of a day less 24 minutes in a year of 360 days. This year, on the other hand, was homologized with a second, so when 60 years had passed, equivalents to 60 seconds (a minute), the Earth's rotation was ahead to the average solar day by about 60 days minus a complete day. By such reason, the minute was another important unit in the computation of the time of Earth's rotation. In this homologation one hour, equivalents to 3600 years, this difference amounts to 10 years of 360 days, less two lunations of 30 days each one. In affinity, when the cycle of 24 hours equivalents to 86 400 years was completed, the Earth rotation was ahead of the average solar day by 240 years of 360 days, minus four years of 360 days. In order to register this movement, the constellations called Mayor Osa and Cassiopeia were used like celestial markers for a period of time that surpassed 10 000 years from today. Considering the reiterated presence of the used models to adjust the Earth's time rotation in archaeological sites of Mexico, it is concluded that this was one of the main causes of the pre-Hispanic cultural development.
Keywords : Average solar day; times measurement.