In the french edition of Encarta 97 the sentence
is quite the same (except that the difference is
limited to 15 minutes and not 16...) :

"La différence entre les durées d'une journée de
vingt-quatre heures, en différentes périodes de
l'année, peut atteindre jusqu'à environ quinze
minutes."

it has the same meaning as the english sentence.
And taken as it is, in my opinion, it is
obviously not exact. It leads the casual reader
to a false opinion, more especially because the
expression "equation du temps (equation of time)
" is neither written nor explained anywhere. You
know the maximum change of the solar day is 40
seconds and not 16 minutes.

Jean-Paul Cornec




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