[LEAPSECS] drawing the battle lines

[Harlan Stenn]

(Found unsent in my Drafts folder...)

Warner Losh writes:


> I think the real reason that UT1 shouldn't be considered a time scale

> is that it is based on not an imperfect realization of a fixed length

> second, but rather an imperfect realization of a variable (measured by

> oscillations of a fixed frequency) length second.


Warner, I think your position is only valid form the point of view that
says a timescale can only be used to count fixed-length seconds.

If one considers a timescale as a counting of days it's a bit different.

Then we get to look at leap years, and the adjustment made at the
beginning of the Gregorian calendar.

Would it be appropriate to say that these issues are more about 'cardinal'
v. 'ordinal'?

And then, if you are on one side of the issues, the other side is clearly
wrong.

Look at how badly people got leap year calculations wrong before Y2K.

H