[LEAPSECS] Lets get REAL about time.

[Clive D.W. Feather]

Rob Seaman said:

>> It is already commonplace.

> Well, no.  The geographic center of California is about exactly 8 hours (120 degrees) west of Greenwich.  Los Angeles is a couple of degrees East and San Francisco a similar distance West of this meridian.  Even for California plate tectonics can be ignored, and PST will always remain naturally 8 hours from GMT.


Wrong.

Yes, the "mean solar time for 120 west" will always remain naturally 8 hours
from the "mean solar time for 0 east/west". But it could well be that
neither of those is the civil time for anywhere.

Consider China. It decided that the civil convenience of keeping the whole
country on one time zone was more important that the civil convenience of
having the fictional mean sun be at the zenith at 12:00 everywhere. So even
though it stretches from 73 east to 135 east, it uses the time zone of 120
east throughout.

It is quite possible that a future USA government might decide that this
same balance of civil conveniences has swung, and decide to move the whole
country to the time zone of 90 west throughout. At that point PST will be,
in essence, what you now call CST, and more to the point will be only 6
hours from GMT.

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