Talk:Intercalation (timekeeping)

redirect?
Does anyone mind if I redirect the search term 'intercalation' to 'intercalation (disambiguation)'? There seem to be a lot of search results so it seems sensible to do this instead. Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by Teamintercalate (talk • contribs) 13:57, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
 * Yes we do mind, you spammer. -Nard 15:34, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

Whole days
The article says that a calendar year must have a whole number of days. Is this technically true? Perhaps based on the definition of the word calendar? Because, certainly, as a practical matter, a calendar could be devised which has a fractional number of days per year, just like the actual solar year does. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.166.35.6814:27, 22 April 2006 (talk • contribs)


 * Such a calendar would not provide a unique date for each day. Karl 24 April 2006 UT


 * it would provide a date, based on the number of years that have passed? but that is irrelevant as a day could be devised that shares the remainder of the year amongst every day that makes up that year. so what? there are many seemingly human absolutes such as pi, time ect that cannot be reconciled with each other, and it seems that even the base ten numbering system that modern mathematics is mostly based around, is illogical and computationally inefficient compared with say base 12. but that is also inconsequential to most, perhaps you should ask yourself first before asking such a question, especially in the form of a statement, is the answer important to me? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.234.218.63 (talk • contribs) 11:22, 23 August 2008

Does Intercalation include leap seconds? Is this what you're talking about? M.Nelson (talk) 03:46, 8 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Intercalation does not include leap seconds because a calendar assigns a date to a whole day, regardless of the length of that day. — Joe Kress (talk) 22:02, 8 October 2008 (UTC)

Epagomenal
Why does "Epagomenal" redirect here? Epagomenal days are days in some calendars (eg: French Republican Calendar) that fall outside the normal weekday cycle. Such days are not intercalary as they are a normal part of the calendar. -- B.D.Mills  (T, C) 06:26, 12 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Agreed. The Egyptian calendar had five epagomenal days every year, so making a constant 365-day year without intercalation, yet February 29 is an intercalary day and is not epagomenal because it belongs to a month. May be someone could replace the redirect with an article, which could mention the Egyptian calendar, Bahai calendar and French republican calendar. Karl 10:28, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Mixes two things
This article could be improved by distinguishing leap days and epagomenal days, which serve to reconcile the calendar with the solar year, from intercalary months, which serve to reconcile the solar year with the lunar months. --SteveMcCluskey (talk) 16:09, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Requested move

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: Moved to Intercalation (timekeeping), Intercalation as a redirect has been deleted and editors are free create an Intercalation disambiguation page Mike Cline (talk) 13:25, 20 August 2012 (UTC)

Intercalation → Intercalation (Timekeeping) – I think this page should be moved with the title redirecting to the disambiguation page, because this is not the primary subject. stats.grok.se indicates Intercalation_(chemistry) had more views each month from at least March 2012 until now (12th of August 2012), while visitors looking for any intercalation will usually hit the Intercalation page first due to naming. The editing activity and length of the page are similar.

Due to the comment at the top of this talk page (Nard 15:34, 11 November 2008 (UTC)) I believe this move may be controversial, so I wanted some input before this move is performed. PinkShinyRose (talk) 15:44, 12 August 2012 (UTC)


 * Checked a few sources
 * Google search for interlation chemistry has 513,000 hits; intercalation time OR calendar has 631,000 hits, about a wash.
 * The Oxford English dictionary has the calendrical usage as primary (and oldest):
 * 1. The insertion of an additional day, days, or month into the ordinary or normal year; the result of this, an intercalated day or space of time. 1577—1861.   2. transf. The insertion of any addition between the members of an existing or recognized series; interposition or interjection (of something additional or foreign); the occurrence of a layer or bed of a different kind between the regular strata of a series; also with an and pl., the thing or matter thus interjected: an interpolation. 1649—1882.
 * The OED also traces the origin of the related verb to intercalate to Latin intercalāt-, participial stem of intercalāre to proclaim the insertion in the calendar of (a day, etc.), < inter between, among + calāre to proclaim solemnly: compare calends n.
 * On historical and etymological grounds, I'd stay stick with this as the primary entry and keep the newcomer (intercalate appears in the chemical sense in 1964) secondary. --SteveMcCluskey (talk) 22:03, 12 August 2012 (UTC)


 * Disambiguate per google usage stats, and wikipedia usage stats. It doesn't matter where things originated, otherwise we'd be looking at Boston in Lincolnshire when going to the Boston page. Move the disambiguation page to the primary location -- 70.24.247.242 (talk) 22:42, 12 August 2012 (UTC)


 * Disambiguation article It doesn't seem there is an unambiguous primary usage here.
 * By the criterion of Usage, Intercalation (chemistry) is marginally ahead.
 * The present Intercalation article is pretty clearly primary by the criterion of Long-Term Significance.
 * I recommend a new disambiguation article entitled Intercalation with links to Intercalation (chemistry) and a renamed Intercalation (calendar).
 * --SteveMcCluskey (talk) 15:47, 13 August 2012 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

week days
Days of the week are an additional complication! We are used to the week days progressing in strict regular progression, regardless of what happens to the rest of the calendar system. But is this always true? Have their ever been any systems that skipped or added week days for any reason? For example, adding special holidays, leap days, etc that were "outside" of the regular week day system?-71.174.179.58 (talk) 20:02, 28 January 2017 (UTC)

BCE and BC
Once in the article, "BCE" is used, the other time, "BC" is used. I don't think we shall mix these in one article. Alfa-ketosav (talk) 08:39, 22 June 2024 (UTC)