[LEAPSECS] Terminology and Requirements (was Re: How good could civil timekeeping be? )

[christopher hoover]

Steve Allen wrote:

> > On Thu 2008-02-14T19:00:09 -0500, Tim Shepard hath writ:

> > If the TAI/UTC synchronized ticking were lost for awhile, what would

> > happen then?

>

> Audoin & Guinot (2001)

> p. 252, sect. 7.3.1 "Reliability"

>

>     ...  Imagine for a moment what would happen if, just as a

>     practical joke, someone found a way to stop all atomic clocks,

>     just for a short time.  This would cause such a tremendous

>     disturbance in world affairs that the loss of TAI would be a

>     totally insignificant matter.  Furthermore, when it came to

>     setting it up again, the phase of TAI could be retrieved to within

>     a few tenths of a microsecond by observations of rapidly rotating

>     pulsars...


That would be a fun experiment to try, if everyone would agree to play
"blind."

-ch