3 ms·
Leap seconds aren't about people but about highly accurate machines and keeping highly exact measures of time, whatever "time" means.
by Amorymeltzer 11y ago
Leap seconds aren't about people but about highly accurate machines and keeping highly exact measures of time, whatever "time" means.
- devit 11y agoIrregularly jumping backwards 1 second is really helpful for that...
- mentat 11y agoPhysics still wins whether it's helpful or not.
- Steuard 11y agoIf it were just about keeping exact measurements of time, there would be no need to regularly resynchronize the standard timekeeping system with the rotation of the Earth. The only thing that makes it important to tie clock noon to solar noon (which is the entire purpose of leap seconds) is to maintain human beings' perception of what "noon" is supposed to mean (over the very long term).