Leap Second this Year

Ye' old general discussion board. Basically, for everything that isn't covered elsewhere. Come here to shoot the breeze, shoot your mouth off, or whatever suits your fancy.
This forum is not for asking programming related questions.

Moderator: General Moderators

Post Reply
User avatar
Ambush Commander
DevNet Master
Posts: 3698
Joined: Mon Oct 25, 2004 9:29 pm
Location: New Jersey, US

Leap Second this Year

Post by Ambush Commander »

User avatar
m3mn0n
PHP Evangelist
Posts: 3548
Joined: Tue Aug 13, 2002 3:35 pm
Location: Calgary, Canada

Post by m3mn0n »

Not much really... they're just squabbling about syncing the two systems

I say switch to atomic and abolish the obviously less accurate and inferior method which is the subject of this debate. But that's just me.
Ultimately, without leap seconds, clocks would have no relevance to day and night, critics complain. "It could one day mean it says noon on our watches, but it's midnight outside," said Jonathan Betts, a curator of horology at the Greenwich Observatory.
Classic overdramatization by the scientists. It would be dozens of decades without syncing that a problem would even be in the multi-hour range.
The U.S. plan actually would keep the sun and clocks generally in sync by adding a "leap hour" every 500 or 600 years as the extra seconds pile up, a switch more acceptable to technology that copes with the spring forward, fall back adjustment for Daylight Saving Time each year.
Classic "let's make it another generations problem" approach by the US gov't. Though, I sort of agree with this stance, but more often than 500 years... I mean, what the hell, that's a little too "projected" IMO.
User avatar
Ambush Commander
DevNet Master
Posts: 3698
Joined: Mon Oct 25, 2004 9:29 pm
Location: New Jersey, US

Post by Ambush Commander »

Well, technically, our watches/clocks already have no relevance to the location of sun/moon due to the granularity of time zones. I mean, 1AM shouldn't have the sun shining outside (unless it's summer on the north pole), but is this accuracy really necessary?
josh
DevNet Master
Posts: 4872
Joined: Wed Feb 11, 2004 3:23 pm
Location: Palm beach, Florida

Post by josh »

In a perfect world there would be some kind of 'metric time', dividing a day into 24 "hours" is just as arbitrary as 12 inches in a foot, the metric system is nice because everything is powers of 10 and easy converts from one unit to the other
User avatar
trukfixer
Forum Contributor
Posts: 174
Joined: Fri May 21, 2004 3:14 pm
Location: Miami, Florida, USA

Post by trukfixer »

djot
Forum Contributor
Posts: 313
Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2004 10:21 am
Location: planet earth
Contact:

Post by djot »

-
I heard the leap second correction is needed for GPS. Without the correction, it does not work accurate/exactly anymore.

Anyway I wonder why the tsunami changes to earth spinning speed (+0.000001second) and changes of axis of the Earth (2,5cm) does not afford any changes.

djot
-
User avatar
m3mn0n
PHP Evangelist
Posts: 3548
Joined: Tue Aug 13, 2002 3:35 pm
Location: Calgary, Canada

Post by m3mn0n »

Where did you hear it does that?
josh
DevNet Master
Posts: 4872
Joined: Wed Feb 11, 2004 3:23 pm
Location: Palm beach, Florida

Post by josh »

GPSs are very uber leet indeed, they even take into account the theory of relativity (since their frame of reference is different then yours, so they are effectively moving through time differently then you). I'm pretty sure the reason the time has to be so accurate is it measures the latency [for lack of a better word] (and effectively distance) between you and the satellites, and doing that from multiple satellites triangulates your position (relative to all the satellites)


edit
eh, I just thought id put this disclaimer

im not gps expert by any means but all this stuff i've heard and am pretty sure it's true, go google it if you're in doubt
djot
Forum Contributor
Posts: 313
Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2004 10:21 am
Location: planet earth
Contact:

Post by djot »

-
Where did you hear it does that?
Whatching TV - loL!

djot
-
Post Reply