The cumulative effect of a uniform increase in the length of the day by 0.0010 seconds per century results in a total increase of 2.1 hours over 20 centuries. The calculation involves determining the average increase in length per day, which is 0.0001 seconds, and multiplying this by the total number of days in 20 centuries. This leads to the conclusion that the initial assumption of simply multiplying the increase by the number of centuries was incorrect, as it does not account for the cumulative nature of daily increases.
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Assuming the length of the day uniformly increases by 0.0010s per century, calculate the cumulative effect on the measure of time over 20 centuries.
2.1 hours
What you calculated is the increased length of a single day after 20 centuries. What's the average increase per day? How many days in 20 centuries?Fletcher said:My initial thought was 0.001 x 20, but that's apparently wrong. I think I'm missing something basic.