Re: [LEAPSECS] building consensus

From: Mark Calabretta <mcalabre_at_ATNF.CSIRO.AU>
Date: Tue, 06 Jun 2006 11:18:29 +1000

On Mon 2006/06/05 16:38:08 -0400, John Cowan wrote
in a message to: LEAPSECS_at_ROM.USNO.NAVY.MIL

>Q: "What happened in the Philippines on December 31, 1844?"
>A: "Nothing. It never existed."

It is fallacious to pretend that the old time scale ceases to exist at
the instant that the new one comes into effect. Essentially the same
sort of fallacy gives rise to the "twin paradox" in special relativity,
(see wikipedia).

Simply think of the old scale continuing as previously, and the new as
having existed before the changeover (i.e. proleptic) and the changeover
consisting of changing from one to the other.

You will find December 31, 1844 in both timescales.

Mark Calabretta
ATNF
Received on Mon Jun 05 2006 - 18:19:03 PDT