Adi Stav wrote:
Rob Seaman wrote:
Coordinate leap seconds with leap days. Introduce an integral
number of leap seconds each February 29th. Discuss.
February 29th does not start and end all over the world at the same
time.
This is no different than the end of December or June. In fact, the
current standard already permits leap seconds to be issued at the end
of February, and that would sometimes mean February 29th.
Some time zones will get the leap during the 28th, others in March
the 1st.
The leap occurs at midnight UTC on 30 June or 31 December. These
dates apply west of Greenwich, e.g., we saw the leap second in Tucson
at 5 pm on New Years Eve. East of Greenwich it is already the morning
of 1 July or 1 January when the leap second occurs.
Confusion doesn't happen near the IDL since it is just before noon on
the first day of the month on one side of the line or just after noon
on the last day of the preceding month on the other side.
So just as with all the other months (and all are currently
permissible), the leap second occurs in all localities on the last day
of one month or the first day of the next. It never occurs on day N-1.
I don't think any of this affects the interpretation of the word
"coordinate". It does, perhaps, emphasize that intercalary
corrections to the calendar are made in coordination with our clocks
(29 February begins at 0h local time). And it should emphasize that
intercalary corrections to our clocks have to be made in coordination
with our calendar (1231T235960Z or 0630T235960Z).
The civil clock is a subdivision of the civil calendar.
Rob
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