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| Introduction |
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| The Martian day is twenty-four
Earth hours and thirty-seven Earth minutes long. There are eight
Martian time zones on Mars. The Date Line Meridian is centered on
the home of Seldon II, at Syrtis Major. The official standards clock
is located in the Imperial Palace. Local time is calculated by
adding or subtracting hours from this source.
The Martian day starts at sunrise,
at the hour of zero. Their day is divided into eight 'hours.' These
'hours' are divided into eight 'sub-hours.' The 'sub-hours' are
divided into eight 'minutes.' These 'minutes' are divided into eight
'sub-minutes.' The 'sub-minutes' are divided into eight 'seconds.'
These 'seconds' are divided into eight 'sub-seconds.' Remember,
Martians use base eight in all their math.
When written in English, the
convention is to place in groups; the hour and sub-hour, the minute
and sub minute, and the second with the sub-second. A colon (:)
separates the hour and sub-hour; a single quote mark (') separates
the minute and the sub-minute, and a double quote mark (“) separates
the second from the sub-second. The digits used for time keeping
range from zero to seven. |
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| Page Index |
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Name |
Description |
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time_keeping.htm#Time Conversion Table">Time Conversion
Table |
The Martian day is
twenty-four Earth hours and thirty-seven Earth minutes
long. |
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Notes |
The top figure in each
box is for use with a clock set for earth standard time. The bottom
figure in each box is for a clock adjusted to the longer Martian
day. |
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Converting |
Let's do a sample
conversion. |
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Earth Clock/
Martian
Clock |
Earth
Day |
Earth
Hour |
Earth
Minute |
Earth
Second |
Martian
Day |
1.0550000
days
0.9749492
days |
24.616667
hours
32.398781
hours |
1477.0000
minutes
1403.9269
minutes |
88620.000
seconds
84235.613
seconds |
Martian
Hour |
0.1187500
days
0.1282118
days |
3.1650000
hours
3.0770833
hours |
189.90000
minutes
184.62500
minutes |
11394.000
seconds
11077.500
seconds |
Martian
Sub-hour |
0.0148438
days
0.0160273
days |
0.3562500
hours
0.3846540
hours |
21.375000
minutes
23.079240
minutes |
1282.5000
seconds
1384.7544
seconds |
Martian
Minute |
0.0018555
days
0.0020030
days |
0.0445314
hours
0.0480819
hours |
2.6718840
minutes
2.8849140
minutes |
160.31304
seconds
173.09840
seconds |
Martian
Sub-minute |
0.0002319
days
0.0002504
days |
0.0055665
hours
0.0060090
hours |
0.3339900
minutes
0.3605400
minutes |
20.039400
seconds
21.632400
seconds |
Martian
Second |
0.0000290
days
0.0000313
days |
0.0006957
hours
0.0007512
hours |
0.0417420
minutes
0.0450720
minutes |
2.5045200
seconds
2.7043200
seconds |
Martian
Sub-second |
0.0000036
days
0.0000039
days |
0.0000870
hours
0.0000939
hours |
0.0052200
minutes
0.0056340
minutes |
0.3132000
seconds
0.3380400
seconds |
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| Notes |
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| The top figure in each box is for
use with a clock set for earth standard time. The bottom figure in
each box is for a clock adjusted to the longer Martian day (plus 37
minutes, or a speed reduction of about 3%).
For reference, Earth time is: one
day divided into twenty-four hours, one hour is divided into sixty
minutes, one minute is divided into sixty seconds. One Earth day
equals 24 hours, or, 1440 minutes, or, 86,400 seconds.
For quick calculations, the
approximate conversion factors are; one Martian day = one earth day,
one Martian hour = three Earth hours, one Martian minute = three
Earth minutes, one Martian second = three Earth
seconds. |
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| Converting |
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| Let's do a sample conversion.
Uumotaak The Bold has sent you a message. It is in English (thank
goodness.) “Meet me at bazaar, get stuff from Tycuus, must be there
at 2:7, urgent!” The time is expressed in Martian notation (in
English.) The Martian hour is two, and the sub-hour is seven. To
find the Earth hour, we multiply 2 x 3.077, and get 6.154 Earth
hours. To find the sub-hour conversion to Earth hour, we multiply 7
x 0.384, to get 2.688 Earth hours. We add 6.154 + 2.688, and get
5.765 Earth hours. To convert the portion of an Earth hour to Earth
minutes, we multiply 0.765 x 60, which gives us 45.9 Earth minutes.
We are not concerned with seconds, so we round the minutes to 46.
Adding the 46 Earth minutes to the 5 Earth hours gives us (in Earth
clock time) 5:46.
A quick glance at your pocket
watch tells you that it is 11:15 am. We blew it... or did we? The
Martian day starts at sunrise! So we add another six Earth hours
(midnight through sunrise local time) to the time of 5:46, and get
11:46 am. We have thirty-one minutes to get to the bazaar (better
hustle)!
The conversion factors we used
were drawn from the Martian Clock time row on the table below. You
did remember to calibrate your pocket watch to Martian time, didn't
you? |
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