> Sorry for not forming my question better. I guess what I wanted to > know is that given that the first leap second was in 1972 and that the > first GPS satellite was launched in 1993. why was it decided to not > incorporate leap seconds into how GPS "tells" time, but still alerts > you to the fact that they are coming up? Or why was the decision made > to have UTC-GPS different than UTC. My understanding is that they > "tick" simultaneously but "tell" different times.(sorry for the > overuse of quotes) Is there some navigational reason? Is it actually > intentional? > > -eric
Oh yes, very intentional. Having to handle leap seconds in an operational system is a real pain. Systems that need an autonomous or continuous time scale typically do not use UTC internally but translate to/from UTC (e.g., in software). This holds for everything from a wristwatch to a laptop to a GPS satellite. /tvb _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
