[LEAPSECS] Get off my lawn!

Clive D.W. Feather clive at davros.org
Sat Jun 18 13:22:12 EDT 2011


Ian Batten said:

> That paper claims that GPS time follows UTC (USNO) "modulo one second". I'm trying to think of any meaning of the word "modulo", be it from discrete mathematics, HAKMEM or anywhere else, with which that makes sense. Can anyone hazard a guess at the meaning that is intended?


Yes. "x modulo y" means "the remainder when x is divided by y". While it's
most often used for integers x and y, with y > 1, it has a perfectly good
meaning for other cases. So angles, even fractional ones, are normally
calculated modulo 360 or modulo 2pi. In this case, it's another way of
saying that GPS-UTC is an integer.

--
Clive D.W. Feather | If you lie to the compiler,
Email: clive at davros.org | it will get its revenge.
Web: http://www.davros.org | - Henry Spencer
Mobile: +44 7973 377646


More information about the LEAPSECS mailing list