On 1/28/2011 5:47 PM, Rob Seaman wrote (in part):
Civil time is based on the synodic day. Interval timekeeping requires a different timescale. Pretending one is the other is not a requirement. Rob _______________________________________________ LEAPSECS mailing list [email protected] http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/leapsecs
Civil time is kept by both ordinary folks and scientists in both industrialized and developing nations, and the subtle differences in various nations and the understandings within various groups within nations have never been put to the test.
The calendar traditionally has been based on the synodic day. Whether the authority granted to government agencies to disseminate time (e.g. "The Congress shall have Power To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures") also applies to regulating the calendar has been tested only in some countries, and at least in the case of France, the government failed the test. The likelihood of any present governments still existing by the time this would become an issue is for the reader to speculate upon.
Interval timing requires two timescales per jurisdiction, one for computing intervals of civil time (typically used for social, civil, and legal purposes) and another for measuring SI time (typically used for physics computations).
Gerry Ashton _______________________________________________ LEAPSECS mailing list [email protected] http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/leapsecs
