[LEAPSECS] alternative to smearing

[Preben Nørager]

On Tue Jan 3 14:18:52 EST 2017, John Sauter wrote:


"I regard leap seconds as a reasonable compromise between the needs of
civil time and of science. Civil time needs a clock that tracks the days
and the seasons. Science requires a clock that measures time in precise
intervals. UTC provides both, using leap seconds to keep atomic time
synchronized with the rotation of the Earth."


I think there is something wrong with that argument. Civil timekeeping
holds both a clock, and a calendar. The calendar track the seasons, while
the clock track the time. If it is to be said, that the clock track the
days, it is important to notice the difference between apparent time, and
mean time. The clock track either the sun (apparent time), or the seconds
(mean time).


When the Nautical Almanac in 1833 substituted mean for apparent solar time,
an important step was taken. From now on chronometry was to rely on
mechanical clocks, and with the invention of atomic clocks, the tracking of
the 24-hour day (86400 international seconds) can now happen without any
daily tracking of the sun.


The question really is whether the calendar needs the daily tracking of the
sun or not. And the answer to that question obviously depend upon which
calendar we want!


I think the disagreement about leap seconds, really is a disagreement about
which calendar to use for civil timekeeping. If we agree to use the
proleptic gregorian calendar (ISO 8601) there is really no need for leap
seconds. That calendar track the seasons well, and with the slight
modification, to add the additional rule that years evenly divisible by
4000 are not leap years, it would track them even better.


Leap seconds are really only a need for those who do not want to see the
proleptic gregorian calendar become universal. For instance for those who
want to use the julian period, as the basis for one calendar or another,
because they must somehow rely on apparent time, and not mean time, because
the julian period count apparent solar days.


Let us use ISO 8601, and abolish leap seconds all together.
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