Next message: Jared Sherman: "Re: leap seconds a navigational hazard, says expert"
Hi:
There's another problem for me and that's Sundials. There are many
dials that are accurate to 15 seconds and changing to a new time format
where the time no longer matches the Earth's rotation will make them
obsolete.
Have Fun,
Brooke Clarke, N6GCE
Paul Hirose wrote:
>Jared Sherman wrote:
>
>
>"But the article referenced claims a 13 second difference...which
>shouldn't matter if the system is correcting for it."
>
>That "if" is where the danger lies. The correction for the difference
>between time scales is done in software written by fallible humans.
>Remember the Mars mission that failed because of a misunderstanding
>about SI vs. US units?
>
>On the other hand, I can understand the astronomers objecting to a
>change in UTC. A lot of software must have been written with the
>assumption that UTC and UT1 would be within a second of each other.
>Letting the difference climb higher may break some programs.
>
>As far as I know, the Nautical Almanac still tabulates positions as a
>function of UT1. If not for leap seconds, we'd now be subtracting
>about 32 seconds to convert from UTC to almanac time. That's
>equivalent to 8 minutes of longitude.
>
>
>
>
