Saturday, October 11th, 2003
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12:40 pm - Conversion Table
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withlyn
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Iridian Month |
Iridian Day |
Iridian Hour |
Iridian unnamed |
Iridian Minute |
Iridian Second |
Standard time |
| Iridian Month |
1 |
24 (twozen) |
576 (forzendred) |
1728 (one zillion) |
20736 (dozen zillion) |
2985984 (one jillion) |
29d 12h 43m |
| Iridian Day |
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1 |
24 (twozen) |
72 (sixzen) |
864 (sixzendred) |
124416 (sixzen zillion) |
1d 5h 31m 48s |
| Iridian Hour |
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1 |
3 |
36 (thrizen) |
5184 (three zillion) |
1h 13m 49s |
| Iridian unnamed |
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1 |
12 (dozen) |
1728 (one zillion) |
24m 36.5s |
| Iridian Minute |
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1 |
144 (dozendred) |
2m 3s |
| Iridian Second |
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1 |
0.8545s |
The "unnamed" unit is one commonly used in Iridian; one-zillionth of a month, one zillion seconds, but which doesn't really match a standard unit of time (the Iridian Half-hour?). In Iridian, of course, there will be a word for it.
Also: All these numbers are based on the assumption that a Synodic Month is 29.53 days. I'm sure a much more precise figure is available, and all the conversions between Iridian and standard time should match that more precise figure.
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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Friday, October 10th, 2003
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8:41 pm - Just mentioning:
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withlyn
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In the past few days I've typed two relatively long posts about units of time in Iridian. Both posts got killed. They had unit conversion tables between the various Iridian units and the standard units. I'm not going to try this time, or write my justifications. Leave it at this: The basic unit of Iridian time is the synodic month, or Iridian month, which is the time it takes the moon to make one full cycle through its phases. If you are actually on the moon, which any good Iridian wants to be, it is the length of one day. A synodic month is 29.53 Earth days.
The Iridian month is divided into 24 Iridian days (29.53 Earth hours). Each Iridian day is divided into 24 Iridian hours, each Iridian hour into 36 Iridian minutes, each Iridian minute into 144 Iridian seconds. The Iridian second is a little less than a standard second. There are one jillion Iridian seconds in an Iridian month. Conversion table coming soon.
current mood:  hopeful
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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Wednesday, August 27th, 2003
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1:41 pm - Units
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withlyn
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I've been thinking about measurements. Particularly, I've been thinking about how great the metric system is compared to the crappy old English (American) system. But the thing is, the metric system is just good if you happen to use a base 10 number system, which, of course, Iridians don't. We'd been talking about a similar base 12 system, with the fundamental unit of length being aproximately the average height of an adult human. Well, here's my idea: take the millimeter as a common unit of thenght. (This typo is so good I'm keeping it. Of course I meant length.) It is defined in terms of the speed of light, in conjunction with the definition of the second in terms of vibrations of a cesium atom. Both are way more hard-core than whatever defines the foot. And taking the millimeter as comon between metric and Iridian measurement systems would make all conversions exact, which is an added bonus. The fundamental unit, for now called the Iridian Meter, would be one zillion (Iridian) millimeters, or 1.728 standard meters. That's a little on the tall side for an average adult human, but it is still between the average for men and the average for women.
From there, we can derive units of mass and volume. 1 cubic millimeter is one microliter, and we can take this to be one jillionth of an Iridian Liter, which would then be 2.985984 (exactly!) standard Liters. One liter of water weighs one kilogram, so one Iridian Liter of water can weigh one Iridian Kilogram, which is thus 2.985984 standard kilograms. That's heavy, but so be it. I weigh about 22.8 Iridian Kilograms, and I'm 1.03 Iridian Meters tall. The Iridian Kilometer (not to be confused with the Iridian Mile, which measures a different quantity!) is one jillion millimeters, or 2.985984 standard kilometers, approximately 1.86 standard miles.
Time... Another time.
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(comment on this)
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Thursday, July 17th, 2003
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3:55 pm - Poll processing.
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withlyn
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At the moment, here is how I plan to process the poll results:
Each poll currently has 3 or 4 votes (depending on whether Penny voted). That is N. The whole system is designed, more or less, to work with any N.
The basic score is the average of the highest (N/2) votes. In this case, 2.
However, this gives too much power to the people who liked the sound. To rectify, zeroes are given veto power. For each zero, the score is divided by 2^(4/N). In this case, just divided by two as long as everybody voted.
This gives too much power to the vetoes, so 12's have anti-veto power. Before anything else is done, each 0 & 12 pair is cancelled out, leaving them both 6's.
I think this system will make sure that there is a wide variety of scores for the different sounds, which is my chief goal.
If anybody would like to change their votes or re-vote entirely, they may, but all the interface I can offer is a list of the sounds, which you can copy and paste and add numbers (0 to 12) to in comments to this post. Please, base your votes on how much you actually like the sound, not on your reaction to the old results. If you are shocked and dismayed by the results or by someone else's votes, feel free to bring it up in comments here.
( List of elements in the poll )
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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Friday, May 23rd, 2003
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11:39 pm - Phoneme Frequency Poll 13
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9:39 pm - Phoneme Frequency Poll 12
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9:38 pm - Phoneme Frequency Poll 11
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9:37 pm - Phoneme Frequency Poll 10
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9:34 pm - Phoneme Onset Poll 9
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9:33 pm - Phoneme Frequency Poll 8
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9:29 pm - Phoneme Inventory Poll 7
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9:27 pm - Phoneme Frequency Poll 6
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9:24 pm - Phoneme Inventory Poll 5
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9:22 pm - Phoneme Frequency Poll 4
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9:20 pm - Phoneme Frequency Poll 3
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9:17 pm - Phoneme Frequency Poll 2
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9:14 pm - Phoneme Frequency Poll 1
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6:45 pm - Prelude to Lesson 1: Iridian Phoneme Frequencies
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withlyn
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Starting with Lesson 1, the primer will be much simpler, with shorter lessons introducing new concepts a few at a time. Unfortunately, that requires examples, and I don't have the Iridian vocabulary to construct them yet. It's time for a word-generator. My algorithm is simple: roll dice and choose pieces from a list, or have a computer program do essentially the same. The pieces I've chosen are a little more structured than just individual letters; For each syllable I choose the onset, nucleus, and coda from seperate lists. The onset is what comes before the vowel(s), the nucleus is the vowel(s) or syllabic consonants, and the coda is what comes after the vowels. To make the lists, however, requires knowing how likely each potential onset, nucleus, and coda is. Adding complexity is the fact that not all onsets, nuclei, and codas consist of just one letter. This decision-making, though tedious, is very important to the end-product, and not difficult. It requires that each person understand Lesson 0 at least well enough to know what they do and don't like, and that they are willing to labor through the entire test. I am hoping for at least three people beyond myself to attempt this task. Good luck.( Read more... )
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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Thursday, May 22nd, 2003
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9:40 pm - Iridian Primer Lesson 0: Middle Iridian Pronunciation Guide
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withlyn
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The Middle Iridian (from here on out, just Iridian) alphabet has 50 characters, each of which has one and only one sound. Many, but by no means all, are sounds that are found in English or other familiar European languages. All of them are found in some other language of the world. This lesson will attempt to teach the sound that each makes, within the limitations of text.( Read more... )
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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Friday, May 16th, 2003
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12:37 pm - A question of Density
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![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif?v=92.2){kind=small}
iridian