Ramblings on vorns and breems
Vorns and breems are two fictional units of time used in Transformers media, or were back in the 80s. They were originally just made up pretty much on the spot by the writers, with a vorn being around 83 years long and a breem about 8.3 minutes.
So I was playing around with them a couple of years back, and noticed something odd.
First, something about the number systems Transformers use. While they glom onto whatever the local counting system is (decimal, in the case of Earth), they might use their own numerical time base on Cybertron. Probably something with a number of small factors, easily divisible by 2 and 3, for example. However, 5 is a factor associated with Quintessons, historically a major thorn in the side of the Transformers. So a Cybertronian time system might well not use 5 as a factor. And the next prime factor is 7, which is fairly unwieldy.
So, combinations of 2 and 3, then. This gives us choices of 6, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, 72, 96 etc. Note that even on Earth, it's not uncommon for similar mathematically convenient environmental factors to produce the same results - we use 12 and 24 for our clocks even in this digital age. We also use 60, but that's got a 5 in there.
Now, assuming a breem is between 8.25 and 8.35 (decimal) minutes long, and a vorn is between 82.5 and 83.5 years long, there are between 5,196,504 and 5,323,243 breems to a vorn. That's a fairly narrow range.
But wait: set vorns to be 83 years (of 365.2425 days), 140 days, 16 hours, and 20 minutes long. That's within parameters.
And set breems to be about 495.7 seconds long (8.262 minutes). That's also within parameters.
How many breems to a vorn now? 5,308,416.
Which is 48,
times 48,
times 48,
times 48,
exactly.
Those of you with an inner math geek will now be going "squee!"
So it seems highly likely that there are Cybertronian time units of around 13.2 days (48x48 breems and 1/48 x 1/48 vorns), and only slightly less likely that there are also time divisions at any of the following breakpoints:
440 million years (48^4 vorns, just over two galactic rotations)
9 million years (48^3 vorns, conincidentally the length of time the Aerialbots were flung back in time in the episode _War Dawn_).
192 millennia (48x48 vorns)
4 millennia (48 vorns)
(83.4 years, 1 vorns)
21 months (1/48 vorns)
13.2 days (1/48 x 1/48 vorns, or 48x48 breems)
6 hours 37 minutes (48 breems)
(495.7 seconds, 1 breem)
10.3 seconds (1/48 breem)
0.2 seconds (1/48 x 1/48 breem)
4.5 milliseconds (1/48^3 breems)
93 microseconds (1/48^4 breems)
So I was playing around with them a couple of years back, and noticed something odd.
First, something about the number systems Transformers use. While they glom onto whatever the local counting system is (decimal, in the case of Earth), they might use their own numerical time base on Cybertron. Probably something with a number of small factors, easily divisible by 2 and 3, for example. However, 5 is a factor associated with Quintessons, historically a major thorn in the side of the Transformers. So a Cybertronian time system might well not use 5 as a factor. And the next prime factor is 7, which is fairly unwieldy.
So, combinations of 2 and 3, then. This gives us choices of 6, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, 72, 96 etc. Note that even on Earth, it's not uncommon for similar mathematically convenient environmental factors to produce the same results - we use 12 and 24 for our clocks even in this digital age. We also use 60, but that's got a 5 in there.
Now, assuming a breem is between 8.25 and 8.35 (decimal) minutes long, and a vorn is between 82.5 and 83.5 years long, there are between 5,196,504 and 5,323,243 breems to a vorn. That's a fairly narrow range.
But wait: set vorns to be 83 years (of 365.2425 days), 140 days, 16 hours, and 20 minutes long. That's within parameters.
And set breems to be about 495.7 seconds long (8.262 minutes). That's also within parameters.
How many breems to a vorn now? 5,308,416.
Which is 48,
times 48,
times 48,
times 48,
exactly.
Those of you with an inner math geek will now be going "squee!"
So it seems highly likely that there are Cybertronian time units of around 13.2 days (48x48 breems and 1/48 x 1/48 vorns), and only slightly less likely that there are also time divisions at any of the following breakpoints:
440 million years (48^4 vorns, just over two galactic rotations)
9 million years (48^3 vorns, conincidentally the length of time the Aerialbots were flung back in time in the episode _War Dawn_).
192 millennia (48x48 vorns)
4 millennia (48 vorns)
(83.4 years, 1 vorns)
21 months (1/48 vorns)
13.2 days (1/48 x 1/48 vorns, or 48x48 breems)
6 hours 37 minutes (48 breems)
(495.7 seconds, 1 breem)
10.3 seconds (1/48 breem)
0.2 seconds (1/48 x 1/48 breem)
4.5 milliseconds (1/48^3 breems)
93 microseconds (1/48^4 breems)