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Leap Second this Year

Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2005 12:30 pm
by Ambush Commander

Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2005 12:48 pm
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.

Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2005 1:21 pm
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?

Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2005 4:11 pm
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

Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2005 9:15 pm
by trukfixer

Posted: Mon Dec 26, 2005 5:59 am
by djot
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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
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Posted: Mon Dec 26, 2005 6:11 am
by m3mn0n
Where did you hear it does that?

Posted: Mon Dec 26, 2005 11:38 am
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

Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2005 6:04 am
by djot
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Where did you hear it does that?
Whatching TV - loL!

djot
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