> > To be short, UTC is based on atomic clocks. Because the earth revolution > speed varies (it always decreased till 1970), in UTC time the 0? > meridian (solar time) tends to drift East. The leap seconds are added to > UTC to keep the 0? meridian at Greenwich. > > In the regions where the legal time is UTC+x, for instance Central > Europe Summer Time, CEST=UTC+2, the difference between local time and > UTC time is obvious. In the regions where the legal time is based on GMT > (like UK) the difference between local and UTC requires a correction of > leap seconds. > > There is a debate to abolish the leap seconds seen as a nightmare in the > digital world (next international conference in 2015). A majority of > countries were in favor in 2012 but the main question was how to do it? > > Pierre >
Thanks Pierre, that's a really clear explanation. I always thought that GMT and UTC were much the same, and that it was a French plot to wrest control of "time" from us :-) Slightly off topic: can anybody say how much of the post title has to change before it's considered a different thread. I ask this because I noticed right at the beginning that I had misspelt "discrepancy". I didn't want to change it in case it messed up the thread; OK, call me a pedant. Richard
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