Universal Times

v4.2 · hydrogen-anchored · three systems

Base-10 face. Ten loops in a local day. Three solar hands — Loop, Arc, Tick — tell you where you are. Gold pips are duration: Pulse (~70 s) on the outer gold ring, Tide (~2 hr) on the inner one. Same length on every planet. Hours are not on this scale.

t:-:--:--.- · Q:— · P:EARTH

Say it: “—”

Pulse → Wave0.0

~70 s · ten pulses is a wave

Wave → Tide0.0

~12 min · ten waves is a tide

Tide → Spin0.0

~2 hr · ten tides is a spin

Half is half. Five is halfway to the next word. You already know how to count to ten.

LoopArcTickPulseTideSeason

Where

t:-:--:--

Solar Clock. Local day coordinates.

How long

GQ → Eon

Same length on every planet.

When

Q: —

Quants since cosmological t:0.

System 1 · Solar Clock

Answers “what time is it here?” t:L:AA:TT. Loop 0 is the start of the local day. Loop 5 is midday. Tick ≈ 0.864 s on Earth. Do not say “in 3 arcs” — arcs are coordinates.

Loop

10 / day · ~2.4 hr

Arc

100 / loop · 86.4 s

Tick

100 / arc · 0.864 s

System 2 · Universal Duration

Answers “how long?” Powers of the hydrogen-1 period, from a GQ (~0.70 s) out through Epoch, Era, Age, and Eon. Cascaded remainders, live. The bars on the clock are the mouthful: Pulse, Wave, Tide. Count to ten.

~0.70 s

Pulse

~70 s

Wave

~12 min

Tide

~2 hr

Spin

~20 hr

Current

~8 days

Season

~81 days

Epoch

~2.2 yr

Era

~2,230 yr

Age

~223,000 yr

Eon

~22.3 Myr

How to say it

Hours are a costume. They are Earth’s spin wearing a duration hat. Ask a Martian for “three hours” and you have already lied — their day is a different length, so their hour is too. A pulse is 10¹¹ hydrogen flips. That does not care which rock you are standing on.

Three questions. Three mouths. Mix them and you get 24, 60, and a calendar that thinks it is physics.

What time is it here? Solar Clock. t:7:42:00. Casual: “seven forty-two.” Coordinates. A place on the face.
How long will this take? Duration. “About 3 waves.” A length. Same length in the Kuiper belt.
When exactly? Quant accumulator. Machines. You almost never say this out loud.

Say	Means	Old habit
Give me 3 pulses.	~3.5 min	“a couple minutes”
Half a wave.	~6 min	“give me five”
That ran 3 waves.	~35 min	“half an hour”
I need a tide.	~2 hr	“a couple hours”
Back in a spin.	~20 hr	“tomorrow-ish”
2 currents.	~16 days	“two weeks”
A season.	~81 days	“a quarter”
An epoch.	~2.2 yr	“a couple years”

Ten of the smaller word is one of the next. Double it, triple it, say five, say half. There is no “minute” between pulse and wave on purpose — “4 or 5 pulses” covers five minutes, and the gap is 10×, not 60×. GQs are the twitch. Machines count those. You don’t.

Do not say “I’ll be there in 3 arcs.” Arcs are a place on the clock, like saying “I’ll be there in 3 o’clock.” Meeting at t:7:30. Arrive in 5 pulses. One is a door. The other is a walk.

Solar calendar

Optional 10-month overlay. 40-day cycles · 5-day week. Gregorian 2026 still stands.

Month 7 · Day 7

Tue	Wed	Fri	Sat	Sun
1Solstice	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30
31	32	33	34	35
36	37	38	39	40

Paper v4.2 (PDF) →Source