Decimal Time, Republican Calendar and other Lost Causes

A decimal clock face made shortly after
 the French revolution. (From Wikipedia)

The decimal time system that was the subject of the first problem on the midterm was actually used for about 2 years after the French Revolution. It's mandatory period of use was less than a year: 22 September 1794 to 7 April 1795. Here is a clock face from the wikipedia article on decimal time.

Republican Date on the door.
(From Wikipedia)

The Republican Calendar lasted a little longer: 12 years. This calendar system had weeks that were 10 days long. One month was three republican weeks. Thus 12 Republican months made for 360 days and there were several holidays at the end of the year to fill out the rest of the 365 or 366 days. Evidence of its use can still be seen on public buildings in France. For example, the door of the famous École Normale Supérieure displays the date 9 Brumaire III, the date of its establishment decree.  (The building was built later.)  Despite the best of intentions, the system was not popular, probably because a 9-day work week replaced one of 6 days.

Can you image the confusion that we would be experiencing if only part of the world had actually adopted--and stuck with--the decimal time and calendar systems? For example the date of the midterm exam, Oct. 8, 2010, would have been called 17 Vendémiaire CCXIX.

All attempts after the French revolution to change units of measurement were based on the premise that dividing units into tens or hundreds makes calculating easier in our base-10 number system. 

But hold on. There's a society that wants to change our number system to base 12! Why?

There are several reasons discussed on the  Dozenal Society website. Here's a hint: in decimal the fraction 1/3 is 0.3333333... and goes on forever. In the dozenal system it's just 0.4.  Exactly.  Wonderful!

Definitely worth the trouble to switch.

Finally, here's in intriguing book: The Measure of the World: A Novel. It tells the story of the project to establish the value of the metre by accurately triangulating the distance from Dunkirk to Paris to Barcelona from hilltop to church steeple to hilltop etc.  Two expeditions set out to do it ---- and they did. We still use the value they determined. (This book is a novelization based on the real project.)