Skeptics Stack Exchange
Skeptics Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [time]

13 questions
87
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6 answers

Is the Gregorian calendar the "most accurate calendar ever devised"?

This statement comes from a Joe Rogan show episode where he chats to Neil de Grasse Tyson. His statement is about the Gregorian calendar, and goes as follows: "Point is, this was hard-earned, and the whole world uses this calendar, it is the most…
Zebrafish
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45
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2 answers

Does honey ever go bad?

I have read that honey never spoils. Is this claim true? If so, what is it about honey that can cause it to remain edible for thousands of years?
jrdioko
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30
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Did Albert Einstein say "the only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once"?

The quote The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once. is attributed to Einstein with some regularity. (For example, Google returns 47,700 results, of which all except 5,780 include the word Einstein. Google Books…
user95432
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18
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1 answer

Have edible jars of honey been found in thousand-year-old Egyptian tombs?

A recent xkcd contains the claim that honey has a shelf life that's so long that edible jars of honey have been found in Egyptian tombs several thousand years old. Image taken from http://www.xkcd.com/1717/, licensed under a CC BY-NC 2.5…
E. P.
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15
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0 answers

Do longer work weeks result in less productivity for knowledge workers?

There are lot of articles on the internet that talk about diminishing productivity in relation to overtime and include graphs like the following: but I cannot seem to find a reputable and scientific study. What studies are there to prove this…
Dan
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9
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1 answer

Did Mt. Etna cause Sicilian clocks to run fast?

From The Atlantic Wire: The Case of the Volcano That Set Time 15 Minutes Fast: It came to light that for thousands of people, digital clocks and watchers, from computers to alarm clocks, were all running 15 minutes fast. RIA Novosti also reported…
user5582
7
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0 answers

Do some people take several weeks to adjust to the spring DST clock change?

In this proposal on the European Parliament website about Daylight Savings Time (DST), it is claimed that (emphasis mine): Some studies indicate that summer-time arrangements could generate positive effects linked to more outdoor…
gerrit
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Are records of people's deaths and births from ancient times wildly unreliable?

In comments below this question: Did people in ancient times, who survived childhood and were not killed in wars, have roughly the same chance to reach old age as contemporary people? an example list of ancient Greek philosophers' lifespans, with…
gaazkam
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5
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1 answer

Does aviation benefit from Daylight Savings Time?

In Europe, we have Daylight Saving Time, but a few years ago, the European Commission decided that must stop and instructed their members to choose a permanent time zone. For various reasons that hasn't happened yet, and this night we moved from…
Glorfindel
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5
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Did Incas use potatoes as a measure of time?

I'm currently completing a corporate challenge where you count steps and head to different world destinations to find out interesting "facts". Today we had a fact or fiction quiz at Machu Picchu, something along the lines of "Did ancient Incas use…
going
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4
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1 answer

Time traveling machine invented?

Yesterday a news report said that an Iranian scientist claims to have invented a 'time machine' that will allow one to 'travel' up to 8 years into the future to predict with 98% accuracy the future for any individual. Does this machine truly work?…
Popopo
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What is the importance of having different timezones all over world

This is like a hypothetical question . Can the whole world have only one time everywhere . What are the consequences if it were to be ?
Yatin
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Has the CERN LHC Muon Detector caused mini singularities within Earths atmosphere?

"Something very interesting happened at CERN recently – they had an accident. The accident created a “rainbow” universe. What does this mean, exactly? CERN actually created a universe for 2.6 seconds."…
user35280
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