4 ms·

>Before and after a smear, the time reported by a smearing system would match a (synced) non-smearing system. >it's simply being applied over the course of an

>Before and after a smear, the time reported by a smearing system would match a (synced) non-smearing system. >it's simply being applied over the course of an extended period of time rather than all at once. I don't follow, how can both be true? If we're averaging the differnce over a period of time there has to be a difference between systems that smear times and systems that don't. Obviously these different measurements will converge like at the end of a year but how do they sync otherwise?

duskwuff 5y ago
The extra/missing second is averaged over the 24 hours surrounding that second. The difference in times between smearing and non-smearing systems never exceeds 500 milliseconds, and their difference in clock "speeds" is a bit under 12 ppm.
bastawhiz 5y ago
There's only a difference while the smear is incomplete, and the smear lasts (usually) 24 hours. Imagine you split the leap second in half. Instead of applying it at T+0, you skip forward 500ms at T+0 and another 500ms at T+1. Now imagine doing the same thing, but 1/86400 of a second every second from noon to noon. You can imagine doing it at even smaller increments more frequently than once per second. At the start, both systems are in sync. One day later, both systems are in sync. You've simply applied the delta incrementally rather than all at once.
- weare138 5y ago
  >At the start, both systems are in sync. One day later, both systems are in sync. That's what I said? So they would be out of sync otherwise. Edit: Hold up, after rereading the thread I think we're all talking past each other here. I understand how time smearing works but when OP said they would sync up I read that as meaning they would somehow always sync up not just when they converge every 24 hours and the end of the year. But now I understand that's probably what OP meant.

duskwuff 5y ago

The extra/missing second is averaged over the 24 hours surrounding that second. The difference in times between smearing and non-smearing systems never exceeds 500 milliseconds, and their difference in clock "speeds" is a bit under 12 ppm.

bastawhiz 5y ago

There's only a difference while the smear is incomplete, and the smear lasts (usually) 24 hours. Imagine you split the leap second in half. Instead of applying it at T+0, you skip forward 500ms at T+0 and another 500ms at T+1. Now imagine doing the same thing, but 1/86400 of a second every second from noon to noon. You can imagine doing it at even smaller increments more frequently than once per second. At the start, both systems are in sync. One day later, both systems are in sync. You've simply applied the delta incrementally rather than all at once.

weare138 5y ago
>At the start, both systems are in sync. One day later, both systems are in sync. That's what I said? So they would be out of sync otherwise. Edit: Hold up, after rereading the thread I think we're all talking past each other here. I understand how time smearing works but when OP said they would sync up I read that as meaning they would somehow always sync up not just when they converge every 24 hours and the end of the year. But now I understand that's probably what OP meant.