Rob Seaman scripsit:
> And the point I'm making is that you can't shift timezones at will to
> accomplish this without creating seams in legally realized time.
We already have seams in legally recognized time.
> Just making the dark "stay put" would result in ambiguous
> timekeeping. Daylight saving time layered on solar locked standard
> time is a different thing from attempting to use an overtly similar
> mechanism to compensate for the misappropriate substitution of
> interval time for solar time.
Stripped of the adjectives, why is it different?
> What starts out as "gradual" (also known as "ignored completely")
> will end in the same familiar quadratic rush. Nothing about your
> notion mitigates this.
In the end, it will be impossible to maintain the notion that a solar
day is 24h of 60m of 60s each: we wind up, IIRC, with the solar day
and lunar month both at about 47 current solar days.
> 1) provide a system for uniquely sequencing historical events
Haven't got that now.
> 2) allow events in distant lands to be compared for simultaneity
We have that now, but it takes a computer to keep track of all the
details in the general case.
> 3) avoid disputes over contractual obligations
That's done by specifying the legal time of a given place. If I agree
to meet you under the Waverley at noon 13 March 2020, it's all
about what the U.S. Congress says legal time in New York City is
as of that date -- which is not predictable in advance. (You will also
have a problem finding the Waverley, unless you are an old New Yorker.)
> 4) minimize the potential for political disagreements
Good luck.
> 5) satisfy religious requirements
Out of scope.
> 6) keep it dark near 00:00 and light near 12:00
Agreed.
> 7) support educational goals ("Yes Virginia, the universe actually
> makes sense.")
No problem.
> 8) allow coal miners to aspire to be amateur astronomers
Eh? I am not recommending abolishing UT1, though it seems strange to
me to measure angles in hours, minutes, and seconds instead of in
radians like a proper SI-head. ("Fourteen inches to the pound, oh Bog!")
> 9) permit the construction of sundials - public clocks with no moving
> parts
Sundials don't show legal time or even a good approximation of it much
of the time.
> 10) tie an individual's first breathe on her first day to her last
> breathe on her last day
Where's the problem here? Any timescale can do that, even the Mayan Long Count.
--
John Cowan cowan_at_ccil.org www.reutershealth.com www.ccil.org/~cowan
The whole of Gaul is quartered into three halves.
-- Julius Caesar
Received on Thu Jan 12 2006 - 23:47:27 PST