[LEAPSECS] Leap smear

[Clive D.W. Feather]

mike cook said:

> I do think "day" should be defined as the synodic day, as that is what 

> humans without clocks experience.


But we aren't humans without clocks. We are humans *with* clocks. The
rubber seconds of UT1 are a real problem to us. It is not at all clear to
me that the synodic "day" is better than one of fixed length.


> That it varies in length is of no real 

> consequence.


As a professional programmer, I disagree.


> Since its 

> inception people have been trying to measure a rubber band (LOD) with a 

> fixed length stick, the SI second. I don't think the SI second should 

> have been called a second. It should have been called something like an 

> ITU (Intervalle  de temps universal)


or an "essen", as has previously been suggested.

But that ship has sailed and we have huge amounts of experimental data
based on SI seconds.

Let's call LOD/86400 a "synod" instead.

-- 
Clive D.W. Feather          | If you lie to the compiler,
Email: clive at davros.org     | it will get its revenge.
Web: http://www.davros.org  |   - Henry Spencer
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