6 ms·
It will be easier to boost the Earth’s spin back to a 86,400-second day than to fix all the code.
by mikeash 8y ago
It will be easier to boost the Earth’s spin back to a 86,400-second day than to fix all the code.
- godelmachine 8y agoI don’t care if this goes against HN guideline and if I am downvoted, but that was the geekiest joke of the millennia :D
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- wierd0 8y agoGeeks make it go around yo.
- mrighele 8y agoI would just change the duration of a second. It would be probably easier to change a few physics constants here and there than to fix all the broken code.
- anticensor 8y agoIf only you were manipulating second only. You would also be manipulating metre, candela, and ampere, assuming old definition of SI, or metre, kilogram and kelvin assuming new definition of SI.
- smt88 8y agoCan you explain how the duration of a second affects the metre?
- supermdguy 8y agoNot OP, but "The metre is defined as the length of the path travelled by light in a vacuum in 1/299 792 458 second" - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metre https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metre
- smt88 8y agoBut in that case, doesn't the "second" constant change (or the coefficient) and a metre remains the same length?
- supermdguy 8y agoA meterstick would remain the same length, but the SI meter's length would change.
- mockingbirdy 8y agoThe duration of a second is defined using Caesium-133 [1], not using anything else like daytime or rotational speed. It's independent of such factors and will always be the same in a given frame of reference. No need to update those values. edit: I think it will lead to the same or more problems because everyone would have to change all time-related constants. Easier to add a second to the day constant (because the day constant is a subset of the seconds constant, but the seconds constant affects many more aspects than just the day constant). [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_caesium#Caesium-133 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_caesium#Caesium-13...
- wruza 8y agoUnless these physics constants are, well, constants put in the same code. How many ballistical systems treat ‘standard g’ as a variable? (hint: it depends on seconds squared.)
- itsthecourier 8y agoWe are so mad the developers made light speed a constant. Should be fixed in the next update. Reboot may be required. XD
- improv32 8y agoIt's been suggested that perhaps one way to find evidence of extrasolar life, would be to find exoplanets whose years are integer multiples of their rotational periods, i.e. they've done what you describe just to eliminate leap years and make their calendars easier.
- Firerouge 8y agoBut how do we know which base number system they're using!?
- cbluth 8y agoAll aliens have ten fingers, duh!
- kowdermeister 8y agoAnd speak perfect English according to the Stargate universe.
- yellowapple 8y agoI don't think that was true in the movie.
- wruza 8y agoIndeed.
- TeMPOraL 8y agoEvery base is base 10.
- styfle 8y agoAll your base are belong to us
- 8y ago
- tibbon 8y agoSomeone should write a short story about this.
- ithkuil 8y agoCode that assumes that is wrong today already. In fact there is no time.Day constant in the Go standard library
- garaetjjte 8y agoProbably not. https://what-if.xkcd.com/26/ https://what-if.xkcd.com/26/