[time-nuts] Re: UTC

Mike S mikes at flatsurface.com
Thu Jul 28 17:07:21 EDT 2005


At 01:58 PM 7/28/2005, Bjorn Gabrielsson wrote...
>How does a properly implemented system accounting for leapseconds fail
>when leapseconds fail to come? Sure there will be unnessesary code
>that could be removed. But I do not see why the system would break.

It will break if the system is built on the basis that UTC is within 0.9 seconds of UT1, which is how UTC is currently defined. The legal system in the US (and many other countries) is based on solar time, so it would break legal timekeeping. There may be systems dealing with satellite tracking/orbit maintenance which might break. There are astronomical systems which would break. I don't know what else, but the point is, neither do the people proposing to break UTC with short warning and little consultation. 




More information about the time-nuts mailing list