[LEAPSECS] BBC radio Crowd Science

[Tom Van Baak]

> Based on the definition of UTC, it seems to me that there are two
> cases, both of which are very simple.  For a negative leap second, the
> change in TAI - UTC happens instantly at UTC midnight, which is one
> second after 23:59:58, when the difference changes by -1.  For a
> positive leap second, the change happens gradually over the time of the
> leap second, from 23:59:60 to midnight, when the difference slowly
> changes by +1.

No, that's not how leap seconds work. Do you have a reference for this idea, or did you just make it up.

The signed integer TAI-UTC is a step function. The step occurs between the end of one month and the beginning of the next. Tables that encode these steps only need one entry per leap.

UTC flows constantly one SI second at a time. Every second has the same billion nanoseconds. You either delete a label (23:59:59) or add a label (23:59:60) but there is no fast or slow about it. It sounds like you are confusing UTC with leap smearing, but I know you better than that.

/tvb