Re: [LEAPSECS] A lurker surfaces

From: Ed Davies <ls_at_EDAVIES.NILDRAM.CO.UK>
Date: Tue, 02 Jan 2007 13:37:20 +0000

Zefram wrote:
> ...
> The historical trend is towards using uniform time units. It seems
> curious now that when the atomic clock was invented astronomers opposed
> calling it a "time" standard.

Well, it seems curious to everybody except Rob Seaman :-)

> ...
> It is much like the ancient Egyptians (IIRC) making the transition from
> sundials to water clocks. They had always marked out hours on sundials
> subtending equal angles, so the actual temporal length of the hours
> varied over the course of the day. When the water clock gave them
> an independent time reference, they were horrified that its uniform
> hours didn't match sundial hours. Much technical ingenuity went into
> mechanical modifications to water clocks to make them accurately emulate
> what went before.
> ...

Nice analogy.

Ed.
Received on Tue Jan 02 2007 - 05:37:57 PST