[LEAPSECS] Conversational caffeine

[Stephen Colebourne]

On 28 January 2011 23:58, Rob Seaman <seaman at noao.edu> wrote:

>        - The length-of-day on Earth has never been 86400 SI seconds long.

>

>        - There are two different kinds of timekeeping.

>

>        - It is the attempt to pretend otherwise that is causing the friction.


This isn't primarily my discussion, but I agree with these three points 100%.

Acceptable solutions
- human-day (following the Sun) = 86400 human-seconds (not equal to SI-seconds)
- human-day (following the Sun) = 86400 SI-seconds + an occasional
fudge factor (leap seconds)
- defining a scientific-day that is always 86400 SI seconds

Non acceptable solutions
- redefining the meaning of the human-day (such as simply removing leap seconds)

There is certainly nothing whatsoever wrong with TAI that I can see.

Stephen