Date: Tue, 3 Jan 2006 15:46:38 -0800 From: John-Mark Gurney <gurney_j@resnet.uoregon.edu> To: Carlos Amengual <listas@informatica.info> Cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: freebsd-current Digest, Vol 127, Issue 4 Message-ID: <20060103234638.GA69162@funkthat.com> In-Reply-To: <43BAE883.1090705@informatica.info> References: <20060103120026.EEEC916A41F@hub.freebsd.org> <43BAE883.1090705@informatica.info>
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Carlos Amengual wrote this message on Tue, Jan 03, 2006 at 22:11 +0100:
> You are missing the sextants, and their users, which would be much more
> complicated to "fix" than those telescopes. If leap seconds are dropped,
> ships and planes are going to notice it sooner or later.
Having talked with a sextant user... leap seconds don't matter to
sextant users... They have a book of times and possitions, and the
book is only good for a year or two... so needs to be reprinted, and
on reprints, they can take care of the leap second issue...
A second wrt sextants on the surface of the earth is about a quarter
of a mile, and the rest of the reading is less precise than that, so
even if you are a second off, you won't be that much further off course..
so, the only fix for a sextant is a new table of numbers... don't
forget the tables HAVE to be updated for precisely the reason leap
seconds are inserted...
--
John-Mark Gurney Voice: +1 415 225 5579
"All that I will do, has been done, All that I have, has not."
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