F-ckin Leap Seconds, how do they work?

valdis.kletnieks at vt.edu valdis.kletnieks at vt.edu
Thu Jul 5 02:55:24 UTC 2012


On Wed, 04 Jul 2012 21:01:50 -0500, Brett Frankenberger said:

> No.  Leap Years arise because the solar year is not an integral
> multiple of the solar day.

And leap seconds arise because the astronomical day is not
an integral multiple of the hour, minute, or second. Same problem.

> still hold.  There's virtually no chance that on a hypothetical Earth
> that wasn't slowing, that population would have decided that the
> second should be 1/86400.005 of a solar day.

Look up the *original* definition of the meter, and think about the
phrase "measurement error".
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