Ashley Yakeley <ashley_at_SEMANTIC.ORG> wrote:
> I'd like to see an elastic "civil second" to which SI nanoseconds are
> added or removed.
Ditto! I have always been in favor of rubber seconds, and specifically
civil second. I believe that the *CIVIL* second should have its own
definition completely and totally independent of the SI second.
Civil time independent of physical time would solve all problems. The
scale of civil time should be defined as a continuous real number scale
of *angle*, not physical time. It would solve the problem of needing to
measure time intervals while at the same time synchronising with the
civil calendar. Civil time interval is defined as the clock on the
Kremlin tower turning by a given angle. Define one second of civil time
as the hour hand turning by 30 seconds of arc.
The people who complain about leap seconds screwing up their interval
time computations are usually told to use TAI. They retort that they
need interval time *between civil timestamps*. To me that seems like
what they are really measuring as "interval time" is not physical
interval time, but how much time has elapsed *in civil society*. Hence
my idea of civil interval time that's completely decoupled from physical
time and is instead defined as the turning angle of the clock on the
Kremlin tower.
<Flame deflector up>
MS
Received on Mon Jan 01 2007 - 14:22:39 PST