[LEAPSECS] The definition of a day

[Ian Batten]

> On 30 Jan 2015, at 10:34, Hal Murray <hmurray at megapathdsl.net> wrote:
> 
> 
>> So, let us suppose the year 2600 is when the drift reaches the annoying
>> point, and let us suppose the EU is still in existence. By then the sun will
>> reach its highest point at about 12:45 UTC. So at this point the EU
>> announces (a few years ahead) that the normal autumn shift back of the
>> clocks will not happen. ...
> 
>> Dealing with local time changes as you cross borders is something people are
>> used to, as is the fact that the amount of change varies both within the
>> year and from year to year. So there's nothing new for people to get used
>> to.
> 
> It's not as simple as just skip an hour shift.
> 
> I'm in the US.  We are used to dealing with hour shifts in the spring/fall.  
> But the system has had years to get used to that.  If you skip one, then all 
> sorts of things need to get adjusted.  I'm thinking of things like schools 
> starting in daylight so there are fewer traffic accidents.  It doesn't matter 
> if they start at 8AM or 9AM or 7AM, but if they have been starting at 8AM and 
> you adjust the clocks by an hour you need to adjust the starting time by an 
> hour to get back to where you want to be.

Firstly, the research says if you only have enough daylight such that you have
to choose, in fact starting schools in the dark produces fewer traffic accidents, 
because going home in the dark (when drivers are tired) is a higher risk than
going to school in the dark (when they are less tired).  The experiment is the
UK 1968 to 1971, when we abandoned the shift and stayed on GMT+1 all year around.
I'm old enough to remember it, just, Clive being a few years older than me is
probably a better witness.  

Secondly, the UK have turned daylight savings on and off on multiple occasions in
varying ways: the transition to and from the aforementioned British Standard
Time, the transition in 1940 and 1945 into and out of GMT+1/GMT+2 that persisted 
through the second world war, the temporary re-introduction of double summer time in 1947. 

We dealt with it.  The problem with all the "these problems are insurmountable"
arguments is that they manifestly are surmountable.  We've done it.  Several times.
Often with bombs falling at the same time.

ian