The Future of Leap Seconds

@10u8 writes "Since 1972 precision clocks around the world have ticked using atomic seconds, but earth rotation is slowing down. Leap seconds have been inserted in order to keep noon happening at noon, but they upset some timekeepers. Recent discussions have considered discontinuing leap seconds in UTC, and a colloquium in Torino next month will present results. It is a matter of international significance."

Comments

precision timekeeping is real interesting stuff

[foog]

And why do we care?

Read the article!

It's important for systems programmers, and lots of folks here are at least systems programming fanboys.

It's important for navigation. Yeah, that includes your GPS toys.

It's important for a number of scientific disciplines, including a number of subdisciplines of radio astronomy.

It's also really interesting that the change in the Earth's rotation can't yet be predicted with enough accuracy to set a schedule in advance for adding leap seconds, but must be measured. This is relatively prosaic stuff that's nonetheless at the limits of our current understanding. Doesn't anyone get excited or curious about science anymore?

Accuracy isn't everything...

[stefanlasiewski]

And just think, if no leap seconds were added since 1972, you'd be having your Noon Lunch at 11:59:38!

Oh the horror... :)

Accuracy isn't everything...

Time zones

[cperciva]

The stated problem with leap seconds is that some software gets confused by them. Guess what? That same software probably gets confused if the time zone changes, or when it moves into daylight savings time.

The Right Way to solve this problem is for computers to work with TAI internally, and treat the difference introduced by leap seconds as part of the time zone, for human consumption only. Instead of defining PST to be UTC - 08:00, define PST = TAI - 08:00:22.

Computers can keep their straightforward time system, humans can keep our astronomically synchronized system. No need to lose either of those qualities.