Re: Time Zone Questions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Atomic_Time
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinated_Universal_Time
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_second
More TAI seconds have accumulated since 1972 than have UTC seconds
because the Earth is slowing down and so to keep UTC in sync with the
Earth it is necessary to occasionally "leap over", that is, "not count"
one of the seconds that TAI is a count of.
A leap second occuring:
TAI: ... 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 00 01 02 03 04 ...
UTC: ... 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 00 01 02 03 ...
I think it's a dumb idea. It would make far more sense to simply
tabulate the leap seconds and apply the correction only when time is
prepared for presentation as we do with time zones.
--
John Hasler
jhasler@newsguy.com
Elmwood, WI USA
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