Re: Calendar

[Gary Karshner <karshner@stmarytx.edu>]

> I might add that it *still* doesn't work for dates on the religious calendar
> of the Russian Orthodox Church (and maybe a couple of other Eastern Orthodox
> Churches as well).  This point that Leigh brought up about the fact that we
> do not use the Julian calendar any longer, but rather use the Gregorian
> calendar points up the misleading nature of the name given to the date
> integer which the formula calculates (before the mod 7 operation).  Brian
> said this integer is called the "Julian Day Number".  I think that a less
> misleading name for this integer would be the "Gregorian Day Number".
>
> David Bowman
> dbowman@gtc.georgetown.ky.us

David,
        If memory serves the Julian in Julian day numbers is not Julius
Caesar of the Julian calendar reform, but the father of the man who invented
Julian days as a way to convert from one calendar system to another. This
was an important tool to the Cronologists who worry about such things,
astronomers and computer operators who find always converting to day, month
and year a pain. The conversion given earlier is, of course, for the
Gregorian reform calendar. Not the Julian, Mayan, or Babylonian (of which
there are at least three). 
        Speaking of Cronology, does any school still have such a department?
Cambridge had a thriving one in the in of Newton, in fact he did a great
deal of work on such problems. 
        Excuse this trip into pedantry.



 
Gary Karshner

St. Mary's University
San Antonio, Texas
KARSHNER@STMARYTX.EDU