There are potential religious implications associated with dropping leap seconds from civil time. There are perennial calls for improvements to the Gregorian calendar (which of course was instigated by a pope) by modifying the leap year rule. One such proposal is the Revised Julian Calendar, currently adopted by some Orthodox Catholic churches, which temporarily coincides with the Gregorian, but will differ in a few thousand years. At present, there is little interest in changing the Gregorian calendar as the civil calendar, because the unpredictability of leap seconds makes it impossible to say whether the Gregorian calendar or one of its similar rivals will turn out to be more accurate. But if leap seconds were abolished, it would become possible to calculate which rival is most accurate and calendar reform discussions might become more active. If we treat the tropical year as having a fixed duration in SI seconds and use the 2011 value, the Gregorian calendar will be off by a day in about 3000 years. Whether it is reasonable to suppose any decision about leap seconds will endure for 3000 years is another issue.
Gerard Ashton _______________________________________________ LEAPSECS mailing list [email protected] http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/leapsecs
