On 02/02/2011 06:47, Daniel R. Tobias wrote:
On 2 Feb 2011 at 8:32, Gerard Ashton wrote:- the SI second is part of a coherent system of units and redefinition of the second would disturb the definition of most other unitsYou could have multiple types of seconds, like you have troy and avoirdupois ounces, and U.S. and imperial gallons.
Looking over the past couple hundred years, we see a movement away from the different kinds of measurement and towards a standard system. Even the US system is metric based, with an inch being defined as 2.54cm exactly.
Also, rubber seconds were tried for a little over a decade, and found to be unworkable in practice. Having multiple types of seconds, some of which vary over time, is a huge opportunity for confusion.
NASA is already using a Martian second, based on subdividing the solar day of Mars, that is a different length from the SI or Earth rotation seconds.
How extensively are they using this? Is there chance for confusion between the martian seconds and the SI second?
Warner _______________________________________________ LEAPSECS mailing list [email protected] http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/leapsecs
