What would our earth look like if we had forty-eight hour days?

vicky271

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Greetings!

I'm working on my series. The country where the story takes place for the majority of the series is called Zara. On the planet the country Zara is on, the days are forty-eight hours long instead of twenty-four. Essentially, the only planets with days that are twenty-four hours long exist in the same dimension as earth. Every dimension is classified based on (a) amount of magic in the world and (b) how long the days are. Zara is in the eighth dimension. All the worlds in that dimension typically have days that last 36-48 hours and have plenty of magic. But I'm having a hard time deciphering what the world would look like if a world day was 48 hours.
 

Dennis E. Taylor

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Of course, once you introduce magic, you kind of open the doors wide. But in strictly physics terms,

1. Weather (at least the cyclonic variety) would be a lot milder.
2. Day/night temperature variations would be much higher. Probably inland locations would be much dryer as the water got baked out during the day.
3. The Earth's magnetic field would be weaker. This might mean more radiation and therefore a generally higher incidence of cancer.
 

ironmikezero

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Assuming the 48-hr cycle has been the norm, the indigenous flora and fauna would have adapted and subsequently evolved to survive, especially in regard to the significant differences from our 24-hr cycle to which Dennis referred above. That might give you a baseline upon which to further speculate.
 

Bacchus

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...wristwatches would be bigger!


I can't comment on the physics/geography of a slower diurnal cycle, but I think that humans would adapt pretty easily. Our Circadian rhythm is reset daily by exposure to sunlight, without that exposure it tends naturally to over 30 hours - this has always suggested to me that we are descended from aliens, but it does build the flexibility which we need to adapt to the huge variation in day lengths during a year as you get further from the equator
 

D. E. Wyatt

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I presume that there's some sort of magic involved with determining the length of the days in each dimension? Because just looking at our own solar system the length of a day varies quite wildly between the planets (Jupiter's day is a mere 10 hours, while a day on Venus lasts a whopping 5832).
 

Cath

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I assume you mean a longer cycle between sunrise and sunset and sunset to sunrise because hours aren't actually a thing in the natural world, they're just our way of measuring the passing of time.

There are places on this planet that have 24 hours of sunlight during the summer and 24 hours of night during the winter (and vice versa depending which pole you're at). You could look to them for examples of how the flora and fauna survive and thrive depending on the length of time the sun is up vs down.
 

abdall

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it could look a lot the same. I'm sure a lot of animals would have to do some intense adaptation to survive. Alaska is a good place to look at animals who had adapted well to the cold and crazy weather, and the plant life as well. Austrailia and Death Valley, on the other hand, would be a good spot to study hot climates. Those are just the extrememes so it seems like a good place to start. Everything else would fall somewhere in the middle. Of course, life would go on. Animals (humans included) either adapt or die.