[LEAPSECS] Terminology question

Tony Finch dot at dotat.at
Tue Mar 9 12:48:43 EST 2010


On Tue, 9 Mar 2010, Steve Allen wrote:

> On Tue 2010-03-09T17:07:01 +0000, Tony Finch hath writ:

> >

> > Is there a generic term for timescales like POSIX time_t and NTP that

> > count seconds (or some other interval) since an epoch without taking

> > leap seconds into account?

>

> mean solar time

>

> thus, by action of the International Meridian Conference and the IAU

> and the CGPM,

>

> Universal Time


I should probably say that I'm relaying a question from a friend, and my
answer to him was essentially the same as yours.

But UT implies to me representating time as a count of days (in some
calendar) and fractions of days (HMS). I think my friend wanted a term
that implied a count-of-seconds representation (or perhaps count of some
other arbitrary time unit) while being a bit more concise than "seconds of
universal time since an epoch"...

Tony.
--
f.anthony.n.finch <dot at dotat.at> http://dotat.at/
GERMAN BIGHT HUMBER: SOUTHWEST 5 TO 7. MODERATE OR ROUGH. SQUALLY SHOWERS.
MODERATE OR GOOD.


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