[time-nuts] International time meridian

Rob Kimberley time.bandit at btinternet.com
Sun Jan 14 15:34:23 EST 2007


Thanks for the info. Both great films. Liked Steve McQueen. Sadly missed.
The Cincinnati Kid was one of his best. I know all this is off topic, but
what the heck..

Rob 

-----Original Message-----
From: time-nuts-bounces at febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-bounces at febo.com] On
Behalf Of Brooke Clarke
Sent: 14 January 2007 20:13
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] International time meridian

Hi Rob:

One of the things I like to do is look for correlation between movies I
like.  For example Bill Hickman was the stunt driver for both The French
Connection and Bullitt (Dodge Charger 440 Magnum).
http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0382707/

Have Fun,

Brooke Clarke

w/Java http://www.PRC68.com
w/o Java http://www.pacificsites.com/~brooke/PRC68COM.shtml
http://www.precisionclock.com



Rob Kimberley wrote:

>Bill,
>
>The  Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) 
>http://www.bipm.org are the International coordinators of time, as well 
>as other the standards of length, mass, so you were right with your 
>French Connection (good film by the way!!). The Greenwich Meridian (0 
>degrees longitude) runs through the middle of the Greenwich Observatory 
>in London. Great place to visit if you ever get over to the UK.
>
>Check out the link given for more info, and www.npl.co.uk/time has 
>useful links also.
>
>Best
>
>Rob Kimberley
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: time-nuts-bounces at febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-bounces at febo.com] On 
>Behalf Of Bill Hawkins
>Sent: 14 January 2007 19:04
>To: 'Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement'
>Subject: [time-nuts] International time meridian
>
>A non-hardware/software query:
>
>Some time ago, I got it into my head that GMT was obsolete and that the 
>time meridian went through Paris, not Greenwich.
>I answered a query in the Glowbugs list that way, and then used Google 
>to check up on that. Unlike others in lists, I feel bad about 
>propagating misinformation. But not bad enough to look it up first.
>
>Wikipedia is not helpful about the status of GMT. As I understood it, 
>the prime meridian was defined in 1884, and GMT with it. Then atomic 
>time replaced the telescope that determined GMT in 1972.
>The agreement was reached in Paris, no? Paris has the physical 
>standards of meter and kilogram, so why not atomic time.
>
>Wikipedia says the prime meridian is still also the time meridian.
>Paris is about 9 minutes ahead of London, and nobody made a nine minute 
>step change in social time. The wiki also says that GMT is still in use.
>
>1/1/1977 was set as the base for average atomic time, according to the 
>wiki, after relativistic effects were compensated. So TAI marches 
>monotonically forward, while UTC subtracts leap seconds to maintain 
>social time. Yes, there are people who want to stop this irritating 
>leap second business until well after they are dead, but they have no 
>"exit strategy" to deal with a much bigger jump in social time at a later
date.
>
>In any event, social time is only occasionally (about annually) 
>adjusted by stellar observations, so technically the basis for GMT no
longer exists.
>Right?
>
>Did see a 1999 article that said Paris was going to plant a boulevard 
>of trees along the Paris meridian that could be seen from outer space. 
>Dunno if they did it.
>
>Also, satellites operate from a prime meridian that is offset by 102.5 
>meters to the east, because Earth based telescopes are aligned to the 
>center of gravity with a plumb bob. Satellites need to be aligned with 
>the physical center of the Earth, for some reason.
>
>See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Meridian
>
>and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Atomic_Time
>
>Regards,
>Bill Hawkins
>
>
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