What would happen if there was 500 days in a year?

Answer 1

If the Calendar were based on a 500 Day Year, the effect would be for the season

to appear in different months on successive years. Since people, such as farmers

count on the seasons (and Calendar) for planting and harvesting, this would be a

problem. Also, the holidays would move around within the seasons. Christmas

would sometimes be in the Spring, Summer, or Fall!

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Further . . .

On the other hand, if the Earth rotated ... and the sun rose and set ... 500 times

in the space of a year, then ...

-- Each day/night cycle would be about the length of what we call 17hours 32minutes

on the clocks we use now. (Of course, we would use different clocks.)

-- Over the course of the year, the periods of daylight and darkness would average

about 9 hours each.

-- Each season ... Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter ... would comprise about 125 days.

-- The moon would rise and set about 36 minutes earlier each day than it did the

day before, (rather than the present average of about 48 minutes per day).

-- About 40 days would elapse during each complete cycle of moon phases (vs 29.5).

-- High and low tides would alternate with about 41/2 hours between extremes (vs 6.2).

The peak tidal amplitudes might be smaller, since the water mass would have less time

to flow from one extreme to the other.

-- Weather would be markedly different, in a number of ways too complicated for me

to pin down easily. The Coriolis forces, responsible for the jet stream, for the rotation

of pressure cells, and for frontal motion, result from Earth's rotation, and would be

stronger. Geographic variations in climate might be less extreme, both because the

solar heating/cooling cycle at every point would be shorter, and also because the

distribution of heat from the tropics to the poles would be more energetic.

-- The Earth would bulge more at the equator than it does now, because its rotation

would be about 37% faster than it is now. For the same reason, the difference in

your weight between your home in the outer temperate zones and at the equator

might be enough to notice. Between the apparent weight loss and the moderation

of climate extremes, tropical vacationing might be more popular than it is now ...

and with the 37% shorter days, sunburn would be less of a concern.