On 9/21/2011 2:59 PM, John Hasler wrote:
Richard B. Gilbert writes:
It's unfortunate that the earth DOES NOT rotate exactly 360 degrees in
exactly 24.000000000000 hours. This bit of poor design causes all
sorts of problems. Leap seconds are just one of the symptoms!
Leapseconds are localization, like time zones, daylight saving, and
leapyears. It's unfortunate that they are considered part of the
timestream.
Too bad that the movements of of the planets, moons, etc. are not better
behaved. Lacking the powers of the divine we must work around the fact
that the earth does not rotate exactly once in each twenty-four hours,
and the fact that its revolution around the Sun is similarly messy,
taking 365 days, six hours, and a few odd minutes and seconds which we
account for (mostly) by declaring a "leap year" every four years. Those
"odd minutes and seconds" also add up and must be accounted for every
hundred years or so.
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