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Save the leap second!
July 29, 2005
I recently commented in an editorial that we don't vote on the value of pi or on the configuration of the solar system. Now, though, the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reports that the U.S. government proposes to politically dictate the length of the day.
If the proposal were to be adopted, each day would henceforth measure exactly, and conveniently, 24 hours. No longer would a pesky leap second be added every few years to compensate for the fact that the earth takes a bit longer than 24 hours to complete one rotation.
Proponents of this politically driven alteration of a scientific fact muster the overwrought language of the last century's Y2K fear mongers to describe leap-second-addled airplanes falling from the sky. The message seems to be that surely a government override of physical facts is a small price to pay to make mission-critical hardware and software designers' lives easier and their customers' lives safer.
But what's needed is designers sufficiently competent to deal with the universe as it is, not as they would like to see it legislated.
Save the leap second! A political assault on pi could be next!
Posted by Rick Nelson on July 29, 2005 | Comments (0)
