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This topic has moved here: Subject: How do Forerunners measure time?
  • Subject: How do Forerunners measure time?
Subject: How do Forerunners measure time?

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After reading Halo: Cryptum, I was still a little confused on the way the Forerunners calculate time, as it was not mentioned in the book at all.

The Novel describes that individual forerunners may live for thousands of years, which I do not doubt at all (even in a 'human-year' spectrum. However, how could we know how many hours they have in a day, and how many days do they have in a year?

So my question is, is the time in Cryptum relative to our time or the same? Does Cryptum just "translate" their time to ours? Does anyone know what the Forerunners use to calculate time, their homeplanet?

  • 02.01.2011 3:06 PM PDT

They are immortal.

  • 02.01.2011 3:15 PM PDT

"Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things."

"Waiting is good. It means you’re not going to die. The person you need to feel sorry for is the one who gets rushed into the ER and treated first."

NREMT-B

Tiocfaidh ár lá!

My guess it that they measure time based on some constant such as we do.

"Since 1967, the International System of Units (SI) has defined the second as the duration of 9192631770cycles of radiation corresponding to the transition between two energy levels of the caesium-133 atom." (Wikipedia)

Probably something similar, perhaps based on an earlier form of time from their planet of origin?

[Edited on 02.01.2011 3:37 PM PST]

  • 02.01.2011 3:36 PM PDT

Have you seen my mind anywhere? I seem to have lost it...

0x0 x0x 0x0 000 000 x0x 000
x0x 0x0 0x0 0xx 000 0x0 000
x0x x0x x00 0xx 0x0 x0x 0x0

I have seen you future

Posted by: Spartan 104 S2AM
My guess it that they measure time based on some constant such as we do.

"Since 1967, the International System of Units (SI) has defined the second as the duration of 9192631770cycles of radiation corresponding to the transition between two energy levels of the caesium-133 atom." (Wikipedia)

Probably something similar, perhaps based on an earlier form of time from their planet of origin?

I doubt that the Forerunners use the same time constant that we do, because our time is derived from the length of a day, and the number of cycles of the cesium atom were inserted later as they were something constant that they could use to measure.

The Forerunners may use something similar to that because of the high degree of accuracy, though it the units probably end up being completely different. The Forerunner units were probably changed to human units by the AI that translated the story.

  • 02.01.2011 4:12 PM PDT

"Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things."

"Waiting is good. It means you’re not going to die. The person you need to feel sorry for is the one who gets rushed into the ER and treated first."

NREMT-B

Tiocfaidh ár lá!

I'm not saying they use the same time constant, but that using a similar method would be likely.

  • 02.01.2011 4:13 PM PDT
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Don't forget the AI translator note. Their units are translated into something we would understand.

  • 02.01.2011 4:55 PM PDT

Posted by: Dante536
Don't forget the AI translator note. Their units are translated into something we would understand.


Right, on the terminals in H3, all the time phrases had brackets around them, indicating they had been translated to what we are used to. I'd assume that this follows the same tradition.

  • 02.01.2011 5:23 PM PDT