[LEAPSECS] drift of TAI

[Magnus Danielson]

> On Sep 15, 2008, at 6:45 AM, Tony Finch wrote:

>

>> On Mon, 15 Sep 2008, Rob Seaman wrote:

>>>

>>

>>> The only thing natural about the metric system is that humans have

>>> ten fingers and the quadrant of the Earth something approximating

>>> 10 megameters.

>>

>> The latter was an artificial and deliberate design choice. Nothing

>> natural about it.

>

> Some would say the same about the former :-)


You could just as easilly use base 8 (not counting thumbs, a possible
alternative use of hands) or base 20 (counting toes also, which some
cultures do).

Everything is arbitrary as base scale and division. There are some fixed
relations in which for instance PI comes up, which seems not to be that
arbitrary as a relationship between measures.

That the SI second still is indirectly defined out of the 24x60x60
division system is certainly annoyingly non-decadent but practical.

Cheers,
Magnus