[LEAPSECS] drift of TAI

M. Warner Losh imp at bsdimp.com
Mon Sep 15 15:23:59 EDT 2008


In message: <alpine.LSU.1.10.0809151600320.30778 at hermes-1.csi.cam.ac.uk>
Tony Finch <dot at dotat.at> writes:

: On Mon, 15 Sep 2008, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:

: >

: > However, following the subsequent mathematical proof that the choice

: > of base makes no difference to any kind of math, apart from expense

: > of ink and paper to write the numbers, base-2 was left alone until

: > somebody much later got the heritical idea to drive thermionic

: > valves way pas their linear behaviour.

:

: "Makes no difference" so long as the base is uniform :-) The civilized

: world has mostly eliminated non-uniform bases, except for dealing with

: time. The Americans (and the British to a lesser extent) still cling to

: the handicap of non-uniform bases for other measurements. Still, could

: be worse: at least there aren't leap-ounces.


UTC is the best example of a variable radix system I can think of.
You count 0 to 59, except when you don't :-)

Warner


More information about the LEAPSECS mailing list