I believe our base-60 system of measuring time is purely tradition derived from the Babylonian system that it originated from; I think there's very little that's "practical" about it. Dividing the day into three sections (duty, off-duty, sleep) makes sense biologically, but the counting system used for each of these three sections is totally irrelevant. Aboard an ultra-tech starship, it's not a problem if you have to show up for watch at 4:34; things don't have to be neat.bunnyboy wrote:I was still wondering why the heck system based on 3x7?
Our measure of time and angles is based to 6 as 4x6 and 10x6, which can be divided many ways into practical numbers.
Then I though it does become 3x8 system by having douple crews with each first and finishing digel and 13-digel off-watch period.
The Trade numeral system is base 8. A solon is roughly the length of an average heartbeat (as is our second), a bima is 64 solons, a digel is 64 bima, and 21 is the number of digel that fits into the Deinar day, which is shorter than Earth's. This divides evenly into three watches of 7, but if they have to divide it up some other way, they will.
The Loroi crewmembers come from a variety of different planets with different clocks, and most have been in space for a long time, so their internal clocks have to be a bit flexible. Some ships can and do run on a completely different schedule, as the concept of a "daily" cycle is totally irrelevant in space. Also, there's not really such a thing as "off-duty" for shipboard crew (unless they're actually on leave or incapacitated); even if you're asleep when battle stations sounds, you get your butt out of bed.
A "watch" aboard a ship is not quite the same thing as a normal work day. A watch is where you're standing a post doing something critical, like as a lookout, or watching a screen for enemy activity. You have to be alert and pay attention, and so naval watches on Earth were traditionally 4 hours on, followed by 8 hours off watch. Off-watch time is not necessarily free time; most chores and routine maintenance is done off-watch. Watch schedules vary a lot and have changed a lot over time to try to deal with crew fatigue, but most human crews lose effectiveness when they stand watches as long as 8 hours.