Rob Seaman scripsit: > A schedule and a rule are the same thing, just regarded from > different historical perspectives. The "leap day rule" will most > certainly have to accommodate scheduling changes over the millennia.
Fair enough, but there is a huge difference in practical terms between a rule that will work for at least the next six centuries and a rule that will only work for the next six months (i.e. no leap second before 2006-12-31T23:59:59Z). > On the other hand, I am sure we haven't exhaustively discussed > possible refinements to the leap second "scheduling algorithm". (And > ain't that a rule?) I thought the whole point was that while we had a rather good prediction of changes in the tropical year (viz. none), and therefore only have to dink with the calendar when the current error of about 8.46 seconds/year accumulates to an uncomfortably large value, there is simply no knowing, in the current state of our geophysical knowledge, how the wobbly old boulder in the sky is going to wobble next. > The biggest difference between leap days and leap seconds is that > days are quantized. Can you expound on this remark? -- They tried to pierce your heart John Cowan with a Morgul-knife that remains in the http://www.ccil.org/~cowan wound. If they had succeeded, you would become a wraith under the domination of the Dark Lord. --Gandalf