[LEAPSECS] Parting the Red Sea

[Rob Seaman]

Poul-Henning ponders:


> What is the benefit of leap-seconds to non-astronomers ?


Leap-seconds are the means to an end.

Civil timekeeping - likely on this or any other planet - has a fundamental cadence synchronized to the mean synodic day.

It has been hypothesized that our Moon plays a significant role in making Earth habitable:

	http://bit.ly/cEROKg (see p. 221)

One can thus speculate that all intelligent and timekeeping species (not necessarily the same thing) face the same problem of synchronizing interval time with time-of-day.

Some system requirements are simply facts of nature.  An attempt to descope leap-seconds will inevitably result in unintended consequences.  Any cure requires coherent system engineering.

The ITU has no authority over the tides.

Rob