Brian E Carpenter <brian(_dot_)e(_dot_)carpenter(_at_)gmail(_dot_)com> wrote:
Time is and always will be an arbitrary measurement scheme, and the only
thing that makes sense for the Internet is to use the same arbitrary
scheme as everybody else. We just have to suck up the resulting
inconveniences, as GPS has to. It would be unthinkable to go it alone.
Most of the above is correct, but the difficulty with UTC is not
arbitrary.
There are two important ways of measuring time: either as a precisely
uniform series of SI seconds (which has been possible only since the
invention of atomic clocks) or as the angle of the earth relative to the
sun (the traditional way). The Earth is not a uniform or stable oscillator
so we cannot easily predict the exact relation between atomic time and
earth time.
UTC is a bodge that tries to accommodate these conflicting forms of time
in one timescale.
Yes, the length of the second and our notations for time and date are
arbitrary, but it is not possible to replace them with a new rational
arrangement that would make something like UTC less vexing, because there
is no standard unit of time that evenly divides the unpredictably variable
length of the day.
Tony.
--
f.anthony.n.finch <dot(_at_)dotat(_dot_)at> http://dotat.at/
North Utsire, South Utsire: Southerly or southeasterly 5 to 7, decreasing 4 at
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