Why is MySQL's maximum time limit 838:59:59?
<p>I've run into the limit myself, but despite lots of chatter online, I've never seen an explanation for <em>why</em> the upper and lower limit for the TIME data type is what it is. The official reference at <a href="http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/time.html" rel="noreferrer">http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/time.html</a> says</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>TIME values may range from '-838:59:59' to '838:59:59'. The hours part may be so large because the TIME type can be used not only to represent a time of day (which must be less than 24 hours), but also elapsed time or a time interval between two events (which may be much greater than 24 hours, or even negative).</p>
</blockquote>

<p>But I'm wondering not why the hours part is allowed to be "so large", but why it's cut off where it is. There doesn't seem to be any significance to that many hours in regards to days, or if I try to imagine possible cutoffs for how many seconds could be stored as an integer. So why the range?</p>