Would daily activities such as work and school be possible on a planet with a 12 hour rotation rate?
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answers:
Jeffrey K say: Sure. Our activities usually don't have anything to do with whether its light or dark outside.
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D J say: Why not? Humans are often active during the night. Many people work shifts.
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Ronald 7 say: Yes
But we would fly off the Earth
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Sammy say: Adaptation is the key to survival
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ChemFlunky say: If you were talking about humans from Earth transplanted to a planet with a 12-hour rotation, there would certainly be some sort of adjustment period. We might essentially treat the days as pairs, with perhaps a short "siesta" period for the "noon night" (that is, start your day at sunrise 1, eat breakfast, go to school/work/whatever, eat lunch at sunset 1, take a nap around midnight 1, finish your school/work day, go home for dinner and free time with your family, then get your main sleep after sunset 2). Or we might just adapt to the shorter days, with ~4-hour sleep periods (some people deliberately sleep in multiple shorter periods, and I'd imagine it'd be easier if it's dark twice as often), shorter work days, and less free time (per day) before and after.
If you're talking about a species that *evolved* on a planet with a 12-hour rotation, no problem. They would probably regard our 24-hour days about how we'd regard a 48-hour day.
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say: Most insects only live a few days, so to them it probably feels like they lived a long, full life. They do accomplish a lot, including raising a family.
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quantumclaustrophobe say: Remember - we adapted to Earth's 24-hour day; Earth's day didn't adapt to us. I would imagine a species used to 12-hour days would be as comfortable as we are with 24-hour days...
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WwwdotBibleSelectordotcom say: Of course.
In such an environment, probably artificial lighting would be used extensively
or
the "colonists" would train to work under such conditions - and of course sleeping quarters would have to be "light sealed".
Consider the Space Station occupants, whose "day" is 90 minutes long.
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Rachael say: Yes we could do 5 hours sleep, 4 hours school and work and 3 hours free time.
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JD say: If you're asking about limitations in regards to natural light, then yes. Our circadian rhythms would be messed up, but humans are adaptable and we could probably figure out the sped up light change. After all, people do just fine in the poles when portions of the year are light all day or dark all day. Also we compensate with daylight savings time in the spring
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