Is there any practical considerations with regards to leap seconds? How does it affect anything? I suppose, for example, that the Unix epoch which counts seconds starting from January 1, 1970 would be about 22 (?) seconds out of sync with UTC, right? I think that discussions on such practical aspects needs to placed in the article. --seav 06:05, Jan 3, 2004 (UTC)
- I believe it has something to do with GPS systems, airline computers and the like.... but i'm just drawing that from my head, from an article I read about the latest spin correction... I don't have enough info to add to the entry. Lyellin 06:12, Jan 3, 2004 (UTC)
- Here someone asks a few relevant questions
- * http://www.mail-archive.com/leapsecs@rom.usno.navy.mil/msg00051.html
- and here is some related discussion, I think
- * http://www.metrology.asn.au/leapseconds.htm
- Essentially, there is a tension between our convention that a day is a fixed length, and our recording devices, because it isn't quite as we wish; I expect the tension will increase as the accuracy of our recording and measuring devices increase. However, I'm far from any kind of expert on the matter! :) Kyk 06:32, 3 Jan 2004 (UTC)
- The following page has a very useful explanation of leap seconds: