Re: Leap Seconds

["Marin David Condic" <marin.condic.auntie.spam@pacemicro.com>]

I'm suspecting that if you add enough seconds to the clock, eventually,
those seconds become a day. The thing about leap-seconds is that they can be
positive or negative - probably going to your point about rotation about the
axis rather than around the sun. Since they started adding in leap-seconds,
they've always been positive.

In any case, my point was that your watch and my watch can both be ticking
off seconds in relative synch even though my watch says "4:30am, Tuesday"
{actually it doesn't "say" anything - you have to look at it.} and your
watch says "3:15pm, Wednesday" You can therefore safely ignore leap-seconds
and leap-years as long as all we're doing is saying "Let's meet for a beer
at Ruby Tuesdays in The Gardens Mall, Palm Beach Gardens, FL (free plug
there, guys!) in one hour, thirty two minutes and 15 seconds." As long as no
leap-seconds or leap-years happen between now and then, we're fine
(depending on traffic).

Its when you have to span over long stretches, that time and the calendar
get to be a problem. And let's please not even mention the Gregorian
calendar!

Time can be a *very* confusing business!

MDC
--
Marin David Condic
Senior Software Engineer
Pace Micro Technology Americas    www.pacemicro.com
Enabling the digital revolution
e-Mail:    marin.condic@pacemicro.com
Web:      http://www.mcondic.com/

>
> Leap years (adding a day) compensate for the revolution of the earth
> around the sun, so we don't end up ((365/2)*(4/3)) years later with snow
> on the 4th of July in New York City.
>
> But I thought leap seconds compensated for the rotation of the earth,
> rather than its revolution around the sun, since otherwise it would
> eventually (12*60*60 leap seconds later) be very bright at midnight,
> local time at the equator.
>
> If I am going to Saturn I should not care about the rotation of the
> earth until I return.