Brian E Carpenter <brian.e.carpenter@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > Time is and always will be an arbitrary measurement scheme, and the only > thing that makes sense for the Internet is to use the same arbitrary > scheme as everybody else. We just have to suck up the resulting > inconveniences, as GPS has to. It would be unthinkable to go it alone. Most of the above is correct, but the difficulty with UTC is not arbitrary. There are two important ways of measuring time: either as a precisely uniform series of SI seconds (which has been possible only since the invention of atomic clocks) or as the angle of the earth relative to the sun (the traditional way). The Earth is not a uniform or stable oscillator so we cannot easily predict the exact relation between atomic time and earth time. UTC is a bodge that tries to accommodate these conflicting forms of time in one timescale. Yes, the length of the second and our notations for time and date are arbitrary, but it is not possible to replace them with a new rational arrangement that would make something like UTC less vexing, because there is no standard unit of time that evenly divides the unpredictably variable length of the day. Tony. -- f.anthony.n.finch <dot@xxxxxxxx> http://dotat.at/ North Utsire, South Utsire: Southerly or southeasterly 5 to 7, decreasing 4 at times. Moderate or rough. Wintry showers. Good, occasionally poor. _______________________________________________ Ietf mailing list Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf