[LEAPSECS] CEPT ECC viewpoint on leap seconds

[Brooks Harris]

On 2015-01-28 05:31 AM, mike at lumieresimaginaire.com wrote:
>
> Oops - that last one got away while I was trying to quit HTML!!!
>
> Le 28.01.2015 11:09, Poul-Henning Kamp a écrit :
>
>> --------
>> In message <54C8B26D.6050904 at edlmax.com>, Brooks Harris writes:
>>
>>> It says - "Until now the solution has been to introduce a 'leap 
>>> second', in other words to stop 'official/scientific' time 
>>> (Co-ordinated Universal Time, 'UTC'), for one second every so often."
>
>  yes. completely incorrect.
>
>  Hold the phone. "to stop 'official/scientific' time"?!? How worrisome 
> is it that the chair of the committee considering the Leap Second 
> question could make a statement like that?
>>
>> Hold the yelling: What are the chances that we can ever implement
>> leap-seconds in a responsible fashion, if even a such persons do
>> not grasp what it is ?
>
>   Probably not so much a misunderstanding as inability to communicate. 
> I wonder sometimes whether the issue is in the term Leap , which 
> implies jumping over something, 
It doesn't help. It only "leaps" on a positive Leap Seconds.
> whereas the French term "intercalaire" indicates inserting which in 
> most cases better describes what is going on.

But its only "inserted" on positive Leap Seconds, and omitted on 
negative. So "insert" is not a good word either.

Also, its rarely made clear that its the counting method, the labeling 
or numbering, we are talking about - actual seconds are not inserted or 
omitted - where would they come from or go to?

In the video industry the NTSC frame rate is 30000/1001 - 30 video 
frames in 1.001 seconds, so a "nominal" second is slightly slower that 
real-time. A frame labeling counting method to compensate is called 
"Drop frame" - it "drops" frame numbers from the count so the hr:mn:sc 
nearly match true running time.

So it might be called "Leap or Drop Second Counting Method for TAI/UTC 
Compensation". A bit of a mouthful. "Leap Seconds" is fine so long as 
the meaning is made clear.

-Brooks


> _______________________________________________
> LEAPSECS mailing list
> LEAPSECS at leapsecond.com
> https://pairlist6.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/leapsecs