[LEAPSECS] Reliability

Clive D.W. Feather clive at davros.org
Wed Jan 7 04:08:35 EST 2009


Rob Seaman said:

> The leap occurs at midnight UTC on 30 June or 31 December. These

> dates apply west of Greenwich, e.g., we saw the leap second in Tucson

> at 5 pm on New Years Eve. East of Greenwich it is already the morning

> of 1 July or 1 January when the leap second occurs.


I know what you're trying to say, but I'm several hundred metres east of
Greenwich and I saw the leap second on 31 December, not 1 January.

Which is one more point on the "don't care about mean solar time" side.


> Confusion doesn't happen near the IDL since it is just before noon on

> the first day of the month on one side of the line or just after noon

> on the last day of the preceding month on the other side.


Except New Zealand is, I believe, in zone +13 at this time of year. So it
was 12:59:60 on 1 January.

--
Clive D.W. Feather | If you lie to the compiler,
clive at davros.org | it will get its revenge.
http://www.davros.org | - Henry Spencer


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