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The leap second’s time is up: world votes to stop pausing clocks

nature.com

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Re: The leap second’s time is up: world votes to stop pausing clocks

#21

Post by jakear »

CryZe wrote: post #14

How is this supposed to work? The rotation of the earth is not a constant. So we either scrap UT1 ("the atomic clock") or UTC ("the calendar"). Neither sound like an actual option. The latter would imply that at some (far off) point in the future you wake up at like 10pm as UTC and UT1 are now entirely mismatched (you may as well get rid of all time zones at that point).

If it gets too bad we can just leap-hour back onto schedule, way easier. (alter the tables that hold the existing offsets - this is done all the time)

Re: The leap second’s time is up: world votes to stop pausing clocks

#24

Post by bioemerl »

SamBam wrote: post #22

> Leap seconds aren’t predictable, because they depend on to Earth’s natural rotation. This is surprising to me. Is the Earth's rotation so arbitrary?

Nearly all things in nature spite our systems.

The earth even speeds up and slows down in response to stuff like earthquakes and volcanoes.

Re: The leap second’s time is up: world votes to stop pausing clocks

#25

Post by soggybutter »

clnq wrote: post #20

> Or we could even decouple our sense of time from the Sun entirely, to create a single world time zone in which different countries see the Sun overhead at different times of day or night. A very interesting idea, but probably much too progressive.

I've wanted to do this for years. Every time I mention this to someone I get a surprisingly visceral reaction against it even when they can't think of any real reasons why this would be bad.

Re: The leap second’s time is up: world votes to stop pausing clocks

#26

Post by kibwen »

kps wrote: post #18
throw0101a wrote: post #9

> How, and whether, to keep atomic time in sync with Earth's rotation is still up for debate. […] > The CGPM — which also oversees the international system of units (SI) — has proposed that no leap second should be added for at least a century, allowing UT1 and UTC to slide out of sync by about 1 minute. But it plans to consult with other international organizations and decide by 2026 on what upper limit, if any, to…

The correct answer is obvious — to stabilize the Earth's rotation — but there are a few implementation details to work out.

If we simply detonate the moon it would cease affecting the Earth's rotation, thus solving the problem.

Re: The leap second’s time is up: world votes to stop pausing clocks

#27

Post by KyleBerezin »

kps wrote: post #18
throw0101a wrote: post #9

> How, and whether, to keep atomic time in sync with Earth's rotation is still up for debate. […] > The CGPM — which also oversees the international system of units (SI) — has proposed that no leap second should be added for at least a century, allowing UT1 and UTC to slide out of sync by about 1 minute. But it plans to consult with other international organizations and decide by 2026 on what upper limit, if any, to…

The correct answer is obvious — to stabilize the Earth's rotation — but there are a few implementation details to work out.

It would certainly be easier than fixing all of the software

Re: The leap second’s time is up: world votes to stop pausing clocks

#28

Post by Dylan16807 »

soggybutter wrote: post #25
clnq wrote: post #20

> Or we could even decouple our sense of time from the Sun entirely, to create a single world time zone in which different countries see the Sun overhead at different times of day or night. A very interesting idea, but probably much too progressive.

I've wanted to do this for years. Every time I mention this to someone I get a surprisingly visceral reaction against it even when they can't think of any real reasons why this would be bad.

I absolutely do not believe that nobody has given you a coherent list of reasons.

Re: The leap second’s time is up: world votes to stop pausing clocks

#30

Post by nousermane »

CryZe wrote: post #14

How is this supposed to work? The rotation of the earth is not a constant. So we either scrap UT1 ("the atomic clock") or UTC ("the calendar"). Neither sound like an actual option. The latter would imply that at some (far off) point in the future you wake up at like 10pm as UTC and UT1 are now entirely mismatched (you may as well get rid of all time zones at that point).

TAI - atomic clock, ignores earth rotation.

UT1 - based on Earth's rotation only, strictly 86400 seconds per day; length of each second varies; takes a heck of a lot of effort (and time) to measure accurately.

UTC - has same length of a second as TAI, but (for now) tracks UT1 to a precision of +/- 1 second. To achieve that, can have days that are 86399, or 86400, or 86401 seconds long.

None of 3 is planned for scrapping. The only change discussed in TFA is to fix UTC day to 86400 seconds (at cost of letting it drift further away from UT1).

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