In a today's decimal world it seems ludicrous that our current (Sumerian) time telling system has still persisted. Below, our current system is examined and then alternatives are offered. I do not expect our time systems to change within my lifetime, but given a few millennia....

Current System

There are 86,400 seconds in a day (24 hours x 60 minutes x 60 seconds). That means our day is divided up into 86,400 slices. We represent these slices using 6 digits or 3 digit pairs representing hours, minutes and seconds. This has huge redundancy as instead of each digit pair counting from 00 to 99, the hours pair counts only from 00 to 23 (76% waste) and the minutes and seconds pairs count from 00 to 59 (40% waste).

Decimal System

Using our decimal digits full range (0-9), we can drop a digit and still have more slices than our current system. 5 digits each counting from 0 to 9 would provide 100,000 slices in a day (00000 to 99999). Moving to this system would simplify teaching time and reinforce our standardised base 10 mathematics. The first two digits would represent the percentage of the day completed. No more: how many minutes from time1 to time2? Subtracting time1 from time2 provides the difference accurate to one slice. Under this system each slice is equivalent to 0.864 seconds.

Pros

• Easier to understand and work with.
• Greater accuracy.
• More efficient (less digits).

Cons

• No chance of current system changing.

Binary/Hexidecimal System

The two previous systems use digits to represent time. Digits use 7 segments to represent numerals. However, 7 segments can make 128 (2⁷) unique combinations, of which only 10 are used. Ignoring time dividers, our current time system uses 42 segments (6 digits x 7 segments) and the suggested decimal system uses 35 segments (5 digits x 7 segments).

The above binary system uses 16 segments (65536 slices, each 1.318 seconds). A 17th segment would provide more slices than the current time system, however 16 is more computer friendly and allows hexidecimal conversion for verbal communication. The first two hexidecimal digits provide slices of 5 minutes and 37.5 seconds; accurate enough for most when telling time.

Pros

• Most efficient (least segments).

Cons

• Not quite as accurate.
• No chance of current system changing.