Re: [LEAPSECS] UTC is doomed

From: Mark Calabretta <Mark.Calabretta_at_atnf.CSIRO.AU>
Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 10:12:19 +1000

On Tue 2003/04/22 23:58:40 MST, Steve Allen wrote
in a message to: LEAPSECS_at_ROM.USNO.NAVY.MIL

>So, in 1700 years UTC as we now define it will become unworkable. If
>our descendants still choose to keep time using a Babylonian
>sexagesimal scheme of 24 hours/60 minutes/60 seconds they will have a
>choice to make. They might choose to keep civil time using TAI
>seconds with leaps happening really often. They might choose to
>employ two kinds of clocks, one using TAI for time-tagged events and
>one using mean solar seconds for scheduling social events.

... or, as I have argued, they might finally have to abandon the
pretence that a mean solar day is of 86400 SI seconds duration.

Mark Calabretta
ATNF
Received on Wed Apr 23 2003 - 17:12:47 PDT