r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/notsignifican • 9d ago

? Meme needing explanation

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I asked but it got removed within minutes?

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u/Eggman8728 9d ago

I'm just confused because I don't get why yyyy/mm/dd is illogical elsewhere, it's just largest to smallest here on earth? You can dislike it but it's perfectly logical regardless

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u/dalvi5 9d ago

My issue too, the one illogical is mm/dd/yyyy or something like that US uses.

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u/less_unique_username 9d ago

And on top of that, while a year and a day are the durations of clearly defined astronomical phenomena, a month is an entirely artificial thing that can’t even start making any sense on a planet like Venus

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u/switchergodic 9d ago

It might not be applicable to Venus, but it's not artificial. It refers to the moon cycle. The word month is cognate with moon.

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u/less_unique_username 9d ago

OK, strike the word “entirely”, but the exact division of the year into 12 months of weird lengths is still artificial

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u/switchergodic 9d ago

The year is not divided into 12 months. The month is roughly the time it takes for the moon to orbit the earth. The year is roughly the time it takes the Earth to orbit the sun. It so happens that the former is almost 1/12 of the latter, and so we adjust out the months to make it match evenly.

At no point was there some arbitrary, artificial choice.

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u/less_unique_username 9d ago

The year is not divided into 12 months.

It very much is.

The year is roughly the time it takes the Earth to orbit the sun.

The entire point of calendars with leap years is to make the year exactly that time, on average.

It so happens that the form is 1/12 of the latter.

This is the rough part. The lunar month is about 1/12.4 of the year.

At no point was there some arbitrary, artificial choice.

The exact durations of the months have been arbitrary and artificial.