Why is snooze 9 minutes long?

[cantdrv55]

The answer is simple, I'm sure. Does anyone know why?

[bigchillcar]

slow night, cantdrv55..?
ryan

[Jims5543]

Because 10 minutes is too long.

[David]

I was always afraid to ask.

[bigchillcar]

lol

[Moses]

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a991126.html

[singpilot]

Moses;

That's just weird enough to be true.

My 2003 model Gulfstream uses a 286 chip in the Honeywell FMS. The 286 was the last chip that was 'hardened' for certification for flight and IF emission and rejection. Since 1980-something, every new FMS has simply 'stacked' the 286's to get (relatively) faster speeds.

I'm sure there is some weird explanantion for this as well.

[bigchillcar]

sing..my old model 23 and 24 lears had old garmin gps units mashed into them. most reliable piece of equipment in the things! fuel gauges?? we had to 'time' it..lol.
ryan

[cegerer]

I like this one from that Straight Dope site. If all the world's wealth were divided up equally (the logical conclusion of Socialism) we'd each have a whopping $3,100 in the bank!


http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_162.html

OK, the data's old but adjusted it would be something similar.

[bigchillcar]

okay..think we've drifted far enough off topic. what's the damn reason for the 9-minutes. I GOTTA KNOW, TOO!!!

[Hugh R]

From Straightdope.com that Moses posted.

a digital clock, nine is the greatest interval obtainable by advancing some sort of "snooze counter" on the ones column. But why mess with the ones column? Why not put the snooze counter on the tens column and advance that by one?

This one almost makes the most sense. I remember in college I built a digital clock from scratch for an engineering class. What I remember is that the hour, minute and in my case seconds displays all work independently of each other. In other words, going from 9:59 to 10:00, the 10 changes without info from the 5 or 9 display. So the 9 minutes is the longest time period that you can get.

[bigchillcar]

hmmm..as spock would say, "fascinating...and if not fascinating, it is at least..interesting.."
ryan

[Porsche-O-Phile]

I always thought it was eight minutes, not nine.

[austin552]

LOOK! If we give you an extra minute of sleep a day, we will loose 6.083 hours of production a year from you alone. Now, back to work.

[juanbenae]

this is what i was sayin'


what makes him so special?

[cantdrv55]

lol!

[84porsche]

And Yahoo says the answer is :

Before researching your answer, we would have thought it's because nine minutes is the approximate length of time it takes to fall back asleep before being roused by the piercing beep of the infernal alarm clock.
But as it turns out, it's really all a matter of mechanics. Back in 1956 when the snooze button was first introduced, alarm clocks had standardized gears. The snooze gear had to mesh with the teeth of the other gears. Due to the configuration of the gears, a nice, round 10-minute snooze cycle was out of the question, so the engineers had to choose between nine minutes or 10-plus minutes. As we all know, punctuality is a virtue, so the engineers went with nine minutes.

Various attempts have been made to change the nine-minute snooze cycle -- manufacturers have tried five, seven, and ten minutes, but a nine-minute snooze has become the unofficial standard.

taken from: http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20041112.html

[legion]

I had a digital clock with an adjustable snooze cycle. It could be sent anywhere between 1 and 59 minutes.

How did you adjust the snooze cycle? By holding down the snooze button.

Think about that.

And consider I didn't know about this "feature" when I bought the clock.

The result? The snooze would slowly creap from the factory 9 minutes towards 59 minutes. Over weeks and months, the snooze would get longer and longer.

[cstreit]

I had an alarm clock that would reduce the snooze time every time you activted it. So the first snooze was like 10, if you hit it again, 5. Hit it a few more times and it would go off in 2, 1, 30 seconds.. etc..

It was great for the chronic snoozer. I made my roomate in college use it because he would hit the snooze for 2 hours straight krrping me up and he couldn't even remember doing it.

[legion]

Originally posted by cstreit
I had an alarm clock that would reduce the snooze time every time you activted it. So the first snooze was like 10, if you hit it again, 5. Hit it a few more times and it would go off in 2, 1, 30 seconds.. etc..

I need that clock.