Larry Boyd proposes:

>I realize that not all the world is digital, but not all the world is on
>"our" calendar.  So, my proposal is, let's make a day 24 hours and
>how-many-ever minutes/seconds it is in a real day.  Think of all the
>problems we could get rid of with no more leap years.
>
>Of course, some may say, "Hey you can't change the calendar and days.
>We're used to it as it is."  Well, so were several other people when the
>calendar changed several times in the last 1,000 years.  So, why not
>change it again and make the day a day?

Because a day isn't defined in terms of a solar orbit, but in terms of
the rotation of the Earth. You can't change the length of a day unless
you change the rotation rate of the planet, and I don't think that's what
you're proposing. (If you were able to do that, you sure wouldn't need to
ask _us_ if it's OK! :-) )

A day and a year both appear on our calendars, but they measure two
different quantities. If you change the length of a calendar day to
create an integral number of calendar days in a year, the days will be
"wrong."  Suppose that you changed systems on midnight of December 31,
1997. Then, assuming you're on the equator, the sun would be rising at
midnight on December 31, 1998; it would be immediately overhead at
midnight on December 31, 1999, setting in 2000, and back to night in
2001. I submit that this would be a much bigger "Y2K" problem than we
currently have.

You can have your clock in sync with the day or with the year, but not
both.

-- Bruce


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