How does time work in Equestria?

[BalanceBrony 259]

So, recently I was bumming around here, and there was just a quick query which somepony posted. They were asking simply “How long is 100 Moons?”

 

At first, I thought it would be very simple to answer. In any media which I’ve read where animals are the main characters, “moon” has always been the standard measurement of time. In Watership Down, Warriors, The Sight, and MLP, “moon” has been the unit of time, because non-humans would obviously stick to things more easily observable than the orbital period of the Earth around the sun. Standardly, a “moon,” or Lunar Month, is the length of time form one New Moon to the next. It is usually around 28-29 days, but it varies.

 

So, I did the multiplication, and calculated 100 moons as roughly 2,900 Civil Days, or 8 Solar Years. But then it occurred to me. I was using values from our Universe, from our solar system, and our Earth. Not every moon or planet orbits at the same rate. And in fact, Equestria’s sun and moon don’t even orbit in the traditional sense. They do not move of their own accord- the Celestial Sisters move them.

 

And that leaves an interesting idea to be considered. How is time measured in Equestria? How does astronomy even work there? With a geocentric model of the solar system where things don’t move on their own, everything we know about planetary dynamics ceases to apply. And this leaves us viewers at a loss. We are now dealing with a system that functions completely differently from anything we know. So, we need to try and use only in-show evidence to make a determination as to how Equestria functions as a natural system.

 

We do have some safe assumptions we can make. The Equestrian solar system is geocentric, with the sun and moon going around the planet (shall we call it Equus?). Equus’ axis of rotation must be slanted with respect to the orbit of the sun and the moon, because otherwise there would not be a polar ice cap. Days do vary in length as the year progresses, since there is a longest day of the year (The Summer Sun Celebration). There is some level of a natural progression of the seasons, since leaves turn colour on their own, implying that winter would come, ponies or no. The ponies simply make the transition between seasons move quicker. So in most every respect, Equus seems very much like Earth.

 

For our purposes, the assumptions above will be what we work with. As a system, we cannot apply logic to Equus, or the question here, if we bring up the notion of the Celestial Sisters raising the sun and moon. For our purposes, we need to assume here that the sisters move not the bodies themselves, but the planet Equus, because it just doesn’t work if we have them pushing the bodies in an orbit around Equus. There’s a reason the Geocentric model failed.

 

If the we accepted that the sun were pushed around Equus, and not Equus around the sun, a year would be the same length as a day, and seasons wouldn’t exist. We will pretend that somehow Equus is in a geocentric system, and somehow it acts as if it is in heliocentric system, because this is what we see based on the observations we made above.

 

That being said, let’s move on to the bigger issue here. Time. How does it work in Equestria? We know that the ponies measure time in moons. How long is a moon? Well, we can’t tell based strictly on information in Equestria, since, as we see above, our logic does not apply to it. So, let us turn to the human world. Yes… we are consulting Equestria Girls. *yay*

 

In EQG, the mirror opens every 30 moons, Equestria time. 30 moons in Equestria is equal to roughly 3 years in the human world. We know this because Sunset Shimmer has spent 3 years in high school, and a high school uses the solar calendar. The human world, we can assume, functions exactly as our world does. There is no magical, physics-defying nonsense. So we know that 3 years in EQG (or our world)= 30 moons in Equestria.

 

Now we can do simple math to find out the length of an Equestrian Moon in our time. Get Derpy if you’re nervous.

 

30 moons in equestria = 3 earth years. Divide the whole thing by 3 to find out how many Equestrian Moons are in 1 Earth Year, and the answer is 10:1. Every 10 moons in Equestria is 1 Earth year (EY). Now, let’s do another step to find out how many earth days are in 1 Equestria Moon (EM).

One Earth Year is 365.24 Earth Days (ED). So, 365.24 ED= 10 EM. If we divide the whole thing by 10, we get 1 Equestrian Moon is equal to 36.524 Earth Days.

 

So, now we have something to work with! Using this information, we can get a scale of how time flows in Equestria. The moon orbits Equus at a slightly slower rate than our moon orbits us (remember, Equus acts like it is in a heliocentric model, even if it isn’t.) So, to answer the person’s question on the forums. 100 Equestrian Moons is equal to 3652.4 Earth Days, so 10 years.

 

What do you guys think? Did my math bore you? Or do you find this interesting knowledge which helped you learn about Equestria? Did you note any flaws in my calculations? Let me know what you guys think!

 

[Zygen 6,065]

Well, i honestly have no idea exactly how time in Equestria works. 

 

I always thought of it as just similar to our time, except instead of a natural gradual day night cycle Luna and Celestia just force the moon or sun up respectively at the time they should be.

[Chevette 1,052]

Simple. Magic.

 

 

 

 

Nah, just messin'. As much as I'd lean toward the magic thing, I admire your mathematic input on the situation. It seems rather legit. I love to argue this kinda stuff, but you already beat me to it, man. Anything I would of done, you already did in your explanation and did it probably better than I would have.

Your math did not go un-noticed. I admire this. Rock on, man. 

 

But just in case mathematics fail for any reason, your fallback can be magic.

[Seaweed-Headed Dragon 356]

I'd assume time can change quite randomly. It might be magic. I mean in canterlot they do use magic to change the seasons. Why not time?

[Jammo 986]

I don't think the writers are thinking logistically when they throw out terms like "1000 moons". I think they just like using the celestial motif for everything and forget how bronies over analyze everything.

[Diamondeye83 49]

I suppose that time would be more of a switch in equestria than a dial that it is here. Unless, of course, celestia gradually moves the sun all day, it would either be day or night, no really in between. Either way, I suppose that our method of hours and minutes would still work, given that the sun in raised and lowered at a uniform time every day (or the sun rises at the same every nov 25, if you want seasonal calculations too). You would simply have to know what time that the sun was scheduled to set that day, and assuming that the day began with sunrise, measuring time would be easy.

[Declen 118]

1. As I pointred out already, EG is non-canon. So whatever happens and is stated there is irrelevant for the equestrian lote.

2. You have no proof whatsoever, that time in Equestria flows at the same speed as in our world.

[Nature's Spell 526]

You can do a lot of world building with the show (fanfic, head canon, etc), but there are certain topics you'll never standardize and time is a big one. The others would be age and geography.

[derpykitten 24]

in my own personal opinion,

 

  we have no way of knowing the exact way that time there would work.

 what really stumps me is this..

 

         if luna was banished to the moon could she still have moved said moon properly? or was it celestia? another question would be , if luna was still able to move the moon at the proper" times" how would she know what time to move? 

Edited November 29, 2013 by derpykitten

[Scootalove 10,684]

Time probably just goes by years and they use the mathematical amount of years as moons. So, that could be how time is in Equestria.

[BalanceBrony 259]

Time probably just goes by years and they use the mathematical amount of years as moons. So, that could be how time is in Equestria.

Nu. Because that means apple family reunions happen every 100 years, and Discord's reign was many thousands of years ago, when we know it was only slightly longer than 1,000 years ago.

Edited November 29, 2013 by BalanceBrony

[Scootalove 10,684]

Nu. Because that means apple family reunions happen every 100 years, and Discord's reign was many thousands of years ago, when we know it was only slightly longer than 1,000 years ago.

So, time in Equestria goes by thousands of years?

[Harmonic Revelations 8,833]

Moons likely means days, as in the times you've seen the moon go by through the sky.

[BalanceBrony 259]

Moons likely means days, as in the times you've seen the moon go by through the sky.

Nuuuu. Because that means 3 apple reunions in a year, and means Discord's reign was only a few years in the past (thousands of moons. It would be nearly a half million if a moon were a day).

Edited November 29, 2013 by BalanceBrony

[Harmonic Revelations 8,833]

Nuuuu. Because that means 3 apple reunions in a year, and means Discord's reign was only a few years in the past (thousands of moons. It would be nearly a half million if a moon were a day).

I don't think they literally mean thousands of moons, I believe they just use it interchangeably with "A long time ago".

[Music Chart Fan 818]

I like reading more in-depth analyses like this one, and I've done a few of them myself.

 

Your calculation is largely predicated on the theory that three human years have passed since Sunset Shimmer first went through the portal and when Twilight went through the portal, and that theory, as far as I can tell, is based on the fact that we see that Sunset Shimmer was crowned Princess of the Fall Formal for three years. 

 

First, that theory still leaves a fairly wide margin of error for the human time elapsed between openings of the portal; it could be significantly different than three years if, say, Sunset Shimmer first went through the portal sometime close to the end of the school year and waited a few months (or longer) before starting high school and first winning the vote for Princess of the Fall Formal. 

 

Also, do we know that the time that Twilight entered the portal is the first time that the portal has opened since Sunset Shimmer first went through it? Or could it be that the portal has opened and closed several times in between, and Sunset Shimmer, say, just wasn't ready to go back through it yet? Those are just a couple of potential issues that I thought of which your theory would have to account for.

 

For our purposes, we need to assume here that the sisters move not the bodies themselves, but the planet Equus, because it just doesn’t work if we have them pushing the bodies in an orbit around Equus. There’s a reason the Geocentric model failed.

 

If the we accepted that the sun were pushed around Equus, and not Equus around the sun, a year would be the same length as a day, and seasons wouldn’t exist. We will pretend that somehow Equus is in a geocentric system, and somehow it acts as if it is in heliocentric system, because this is what we see based on the observations we made above.

 

There was another forum member who made a topic a while ago with an entertaining theory of what Celestia and Luna really do when they "raise the sun" and "raise the moon", since it would be extremely unrealistic for them to actually move the sun and moon around the planet. That topic can be found here.

[BalanceBrony 259]

I like reading more in-depth analyses like this one, and I've done a few of them myself.

 

Your calculation is largely predicated on the theory that three human years have passed since Sunset Shimmer first went through the portal and when Twilight went through the portal, and that theory, as far as I can tell, is based on the fact that we see that Sunset Shimmer was crowned Princess of the Fall Formal for three years. 

 

First, that theory still leaves a fairly wide margin of error for the human time elapsed between openings of the portal; it could be significantly different than three years if, say, Sunset Shimmer first went through the portal sometime close to the end of the school year and waited a few months (or longer) before starting high school and first winning the vote for Princess of the Fall Formal. 

 

Also, do we know that the time that Twilight entered the portal is the first time that the portal has opened since Sunset Shimmer first went through it? Or could it be that the portal has opened and closed several times in between, and Sunset Shimmer, say, just wasn't ready to go back through it yet? Those are just a couple of potential issues that I thought of which your theory would have to account for.

 

 

There was another forum member who made a topic a while ago with an entertaining theory of what Celestia and Luna really do when they "raise the sun" and "raise the moon", since it would be extremely unrealistic for them to actually move the sun and moon around the planet. That topic can be found here.

True, we cannot know for sure if this is the case. But it certainly makes sense. and if a moon means a moon cycle, which is the most likely definition, 10 moons in a year is not a far cry for the 12 moons we are used to. It just seems to make sense.

[IDontExistAnymore 74]

I had never really thought about that. I am a very advanced math student but I just don't ever think this way. Like a mathematician. Brohoof to you sir.

[BalanceBrony 259]

I had never really thought about that. I am a very advanced math student but I just don't ever think this way. Like a mathematician. Brohoof to you sir.

Thanks. I think one thing I have to thank is the fact that all 9 of my multiple intelligences have an equal rating of 8 on one test, and all falling between 4 and 5 on a different test.. I suppose my thinking is Balanced, so I can think in multiple ways at a given time.

Edited December 5, 2013 by BalanceBrony

[IDontExistAnymore 74]

Thanks. I think one thing I have to thank is the fact that all 9 of my multiple intelligences have an equal rating of 8. I suppose my thinking is Balanced, so I can think in multiple ways at a given time.

I did not understand that at all but y'know whatever....

[BalanceBrony 259]

I did not understand that at all but y'know whatever....

 

The 9 intelligences proposed by Howard Gardner were a new attempt at figuring out how a person thinks, in the hope of making a more tailored educational experience for students. He was a Harvard psychologist who realised that people think differently, and in order to most effectively teach, you need to learn how your students brains work. In practice, providing assessments for students would obviously be too inefficient, so his ideas were never put into full practice. But it is still possible to find variations of his 9 intelligences test, to determine where your strongest type of thinking will be.

 

Here is a link, so you can try, if you want.

 

http://www.literacyworks.org/mi/assessment/findyourstrengths.html

[IDontExistAnymore 74]

The 9 intelligences proposed by Howard Gardner were a new attempt at figuring out how a person thinks, in the hope of making a more tailored educational experience for students. He was a Harvard psychologist who realised that people think differently, and in order to most effectively teach, you need to learn how your students brains work. In practice, providing assessments for students would obviously be too inefficient, so his ideas were never put into full practice. But it is still possible to find variations of his 9 intelligences test, to determine where your strongest type of thinking will be.

 

Here is a link, so you can try, if you want.

 

http://www.literacyworks.org/mi/assessment/findyourstrengths.html

Alright then. I didn't know that. Thanks!

[Solid 1,326]

 

If 1 moon is 36 days, then yeah, probably this fast. (not so realistic passage of time )