Shwa Metrics: Social Units

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On the previous page, you were introduced to the physical units of Shwa Metrics. This page will cover the social units.

Monetary Value

Shwa Metrics has a standard unit of value, in other words a monetary currency: the Merit [Me]. It is defined by supply and demand, like all modern currencies, backed entirely by faith in its future utility. There is no Fort Knox with a store of gold backing the Merit: those who accept Merits in exchange for things of value do so in the faith that others will do the same.

Absolute time

Absolute time identifies a particular moment, in contrast with elapsed time, which measures the time between two moments in Chronits. The simplest way to express absolute time is to measure the relative time since a reference moment.

Shwa Metrics does this, and the result is called the Shwa Clock. The reference moment is called the Epoch , and it is arbitrarily set to the moment the Apollo 11 Eagle lander touched down on the moon: 20h17 universal time on 20 July 1969 C.E. Other reference moments could have been chosen, for example the first flight (Montgolfier, 1783), first radio (Marconi, 1896), first heavier-than-air flight (Wright, 1903), controlled fission (Fermi, 1942), first spaceflight (Sputnik, 1959) first human spaceflight (Gagarin, 1961), or first interplanetary spaceflight (Mariner, 1962), but the first human lunar landing is recent, precise, optimistic, inoffensive, and significant.

The Shwa Clock measures time elapsed since the Epoch in units called Orit [Or]: 1 Orit means 1 Chronit since the Epoch. As of midnight universal time at the end of the last millenium, this absolute clock stood at Or16°137532. It's not hard to calculate time elapsed since then: at the end of 2011, the clock stood at OrOr16°185637.

Cyclical time

An Orit measures absolute time, but there is another kind of time important to us: the cyclical time which provides the social pattern in which we live our lives. Two cycles in particular are very important to us: the day and the year.

The Day

Like our day, the Shwa day is anchored at noon, the moment when the sun is directly above us. Times of day are then expressed in units called Solit [So]: 1 Solit means 1 Chronit since noon. Morning times (between midnight and noon) use negative Solits.

It's convenient for people to share time across a time zone, even if that means clock noon doesn't match local noon. It's also convenient for time zones to differ by an even number of Solits. But instead of 24 time zones, Shwa divides the world into only 19 time zones, each 19° of longitude apart. That works out to a difference of So10°1 between adjacent time zones (except across the international date line). Here's a list :

Central Longitude	Local time at GMT noon	Includes
171°E	So11°13	New Zealand
152°E	So11°14	Australia
133°E	So11°15	Japan
114°E	So11°16	China, Indonesia
95°E	So10°5	SE Asia
76°E	So10°4	India
57°E	So10°3	Dubai, Iran
38°E	So10°2	Moscow, Turkey, Beirut, Egypt, Mecca
19°E	So10°1	Germany, Austria, Scandinavia, Italy, Hungary, Poland, Czech, Slovak, Cape Town
0°	So10°0	UK, France, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Lagos
19°W	So10°1	Reykjavik, Dakar
38°W	So10°2	São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro
57°W	So10°3	Buenos Aires, St. John's
76°W	So10°4	Washington, New York, Santiago
95°W	So10°5	Houston, Chicago, Mexico City
114°W	So11°16	Calgary, Los Angeles, San Francisco
133°W	So11°15	Juneau
152°W	So11°14	Hawaii
171°W	So11°13	Samoa

The Year

The calendar day starts at midnight in each time zone, proceeding westward as the day advances. Years start on the southern solstice (the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere), which is usually 22 December. The year that ended 21 December 1969 CE was Shwa Year 0, so most of the year 2012 CE is Shwa year 43.

The Shwa year is divided into 12 Months of 30 days each, which happen to line up well with the months of the Zodiac. Each of these months is divided into 5 Weeks of 6 days each, for a total of 72 weeks per year. In addition, there are six Holidays every year that fall at the end of every season:

• Easter (or Pascha) falls at the end of March, on the northward equinox (spring equinox in the northern hemisphere), and marks the end of winter and the start of spring.
• Midsummer is a two-day festival that falls at the end of June, marking the northern solstice, the end of spring and the beginning of summer. The night between the two days is the shortest of the year, and traditionally, everybody stays up all night, making it one long day.
• Harfest (or Thanksgiving) falls at the end of September, on the southward equinox (autumn equinox in the northern hemisphere), marking the end of summer and the beginning of autumn.
• Finally, New Year falls at the end of December, on the southern solstice, marking the end of autumn and the year. Every fourth year, the New Year festival is two days long, unless the year is divisible by 128. This rhythm keeps the Shwa calendar year in time with the astronomic year better than any other calendar ever used.

The Shwa calendar uses the same names for months and days of the week, except that Saturday has been dropped (God said "take the Sabbath off", didn't He?). In languages whose name for Sunday no longer refers to the Sun, it reverts, e.g. to soledi or soles.

Each date can also be expressed in "numeric" form as a three or four digit number, representing month-week-day. The months are numbered 0 through 11, but often a leading 1 is omitted, so the last six months of the year are represented by negative digits. The weeks are numbered 0 through 4, and the days of each week are numbered 0 through 5. Holidays are all Week 5. These dates are not consecutive integers, so you cannot subtract them to find out how many days there are between two dates, but they are in numeric order and have other desirable arithmetic properties, discussed below. For one, every date always falls on the same day of the week.

The full Shwa Date is also a unit, called the Dattit [Da], and it's written "Da" Year . Month Week Day, with a decimal point between the year and the date. For example, 1jan2012 CE = Da43.014.

Here is a dual calendar:

Month	Week	Day 0 Sunday	Day 1 Monday	Day 2 Tuesday	Day 3 Wednesday	Day 4 Thursday	Day 5 Friday
Month 0 January Sagittarius	Week 0	December 22	December 23	December 24	December 25	December 26	December 27
	Week 1	December 28	December 29	December 30	December 31	January 1	January 2
	Week 2	January 3	January 4	January 5	January 6	January 7	January 8
	Week 3	January 9	January 10	January 11	January 12	January 13	January 14
	Week 4	January 15	January 16	January 17	January 18	January 19	January 20
Month 1 February Capricorn	Week 0	January 21	January 22	January 23	January 24	January 25	January 26
	Week 1	January 27	January 28	January 29	January 30	January 31	February 1
	Week 2	February 2	February 3	February 4	February 5	February 6	February 7
	Week 3	February 8	February 9	February 10	February 11	February 12	February 13
	Week 4	February 14	February 15	February 16	February 17	February 18	February 19
Month 2 March Aquarius	Week 0	February 20	February 21	February 22	February 23	February 24	February 25
	Week 1	February 26	February 27	February 28	March 1	March 2	March 3
	Week 2	March 4	March 5	March 6	March 7	March 8	March 9
	Week 3	March 10	March 11	March 12	March 13	March 14	March 15
	Week 4	March 16	March 17	March 18	March 19	March 20	March 21
	Week 5	March 22	← Easter
Month 3 April Pisces	Week 0	March 23	March 24	March 25	March 26	March 27	March 28
	Week 1	March 29	March 30	March 31	April 1	April 2	April 3
	Week 2	April 4	April 5	April 6	April 7	April 8	April 9
	Week 3	April 10	April 11	April 12	April 13	April 14	April 15
	Week 4	April 16	April 17	April 18	April 19	April 20	April 21
Month 4 May Aries	Week 0	April 22	April 23	April 24	April 25	April 26	April 27
	Week 1	April 28	April 29	April 30	May 1	May 2	May 3
	Week 2	May 4	May 5	May 6	May 7	May 8	May 9
	Week 3	May 10	May 11	May 12	May 13	May 14	May 15
	Week 4	May 16	May 17	May 18	May 19	May 20	May 21
Month 5 June Taurus	Week 0	May 22	May 23	May 24	May 25	May 26	May 27
	Week 1	May 28	May 29	May 30	May 31	June 1	June 2
	Week 2	June 3	June 4	June 5	June 6	June 7	June 8
	Week 3	June 9	June 10	June 11	June 12	June 13	June 14
	Week 4	June 15	June 16	June 17	June 18	June 19	June 20
	Week 5		June 21	June 22	← Midsummer
Month 6 July Gemini	Week 0	June 23	June 24	June 25	June 26	June 27	June 28
	Week 1	June 29	June 30	July 1	July 2	July 3	July 4
	Week 2	July 5	July 6	July 7	July 8	July 9	July 10
	Week 3	July 11	July 12	July 13	July 14	July 15	July 16
	Week 4	July 17	July 18	July 19	July 20	July 21	July 22
Month 5 August Cancer	Week 0	July 23	July 24	July 25	July 26	July 27	July 28
	Week 1	July 29	July 30	July 31	August 1	August 2	August 3
	Week 2	August 4	August 5	August 6	August 7	August 8	August 9
	Week 3	August 10	August 11	August 12	August 13	August 14	August 15
	Week 4	August 16	August 17	August 18	August 19	August 20	August 21
Month 4 September Leo	Week 0	August 22	August 23	August 24	August 25	August 26	August 27
	Week 1	August 28	August 29	August 30	August 31	September 1	September 2
	Week 2	September 3	September 4	September 5	September 6	September 7	September 8
	Week 3	September 9	September 10	September 11	September 12	September 13	September 14
	Week 4	September 15	September 16	September 17	September 18	September 19	September 20
	Week 5	Thanksgiving →			September 21
Month 3 October Virgo	Week 0	September 22	September 23	September 24	September 25	September 26	September 27
	Week 1	September 28	September 29	September 30	October 1	October 2	October 3
	Week 2	October 4	October 5	October 6	October 7	October 8	October 9
	Week 3	October 10	October 11	October 12	October 13	October 14	October 15
	Week 4	October 16	October 17	October 18	October 19	October 20	October 21
Month 2 November Libra	Week 0	October 22	October 23	October 24	October 25	October 26	October 27
	Week 1	October 28	October 29	October 30	October 31	November 1	November 2
	Week 2	November 3	November 4	November 5	November 6	November 7	November 8
	Week 3	November 9	November 10	November 11	November 12	November 13	November 14
	Week 4	November 15	November 16	November 17	November 18	November 19	November 20
Month 1 December Scorpio	Week 0	November 21	November 22	November 23	November 24	November 25	November 26
	Week 1	November 27	November 28	November 29	November 30	December 1	December 2
	Week 2	December 3	December 4	December 5	December 6	December 7	December 8
	Week 3	December 9	December 10	December 11	December 12	December 13	December 14
	Week 4	December 15	December 16	December 17	December 18	December 19	December 20
	Week 5	New Year →				December 21	(February 29)
Month	Week	Day 0 Sunday	Day 1 Monday	Day 2 Tuesday	Day 3 Wednesday	Day 4 Thursday	Day 5 Friday

Repetitive Schedules

In the Shwa calendar, there are no weekends : stores, schools, trains, etc. all have a single schedule (except for the holidays). But each individual has his own repetitive schedule which includes days off during the week, vacations, and regular dates like classes, meetings or bowling night. For instance, you might have a class that meets every Wednesday night, i.e .once every six days.

But the Shwa calendar also has a monthly sequence designed to interleave the working schedules of five colleagues, assuming each works one-fifth of his time (219 eight-hour days a year). That's the equivalent of 41 non-weekend days off a year, more time off than most Americans but a little less than the French. On this schedule, three of the five would work every day. If the three of you are working in shifts to cover the entire 24-hour day, you would work the morning shift for your first two 3-day sets, the afternoon shift for the next two, and the night shift for the last two.

Here's how it works : the five weeks of each month have all been given English names based on the five elements (combining the Greek and Chinese lists): Stone, Earth, Water, Air and Fire. In addition, the days of each month have also been given names based on the same elements. Each person is assigned to one of the five elements, and he gets the day off whenever either the week or the day is his element.

Week	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Stoneweek	Waterday	Airday	Earthday	Fireday	Waterday	Airday
Earthweek	Airday	Fireday	Waterday	Stoneday	Airday	Fireday
Waterweek	Fireday	Stoneday	Airday	Earthday	Fireday	Stoneday
Airweek	Stoneday	Earthday	Fireday	Waterday	Stoneday	Earthday
Fireweek	Earthday	Waterday	Stoneday	Airday	Earthday	Waterday

If you examine this calendar, you'll see that everybody has a full week of vacation every month. In between vacations, they work three days on and one day off, with an extra day off in the middle of the month. The schedules are all identical (and symmetrical), so no element is better than another. The same pattern repeats every month. Of course, everybody will also work some of the holidays if their workplace isn't closed.

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