Arthur Carlson wrote: > > Luke Coletti <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > > Arthur, > > > > Please investigate for us > > Touche. I think some of these questions will move to the back > burner. To significantly improve my understanding of celestial > mechanics, I need to do some systematic reading. > > This thread started with the Millennium Clock. The plan is to have > the clock tell clock time, but to synchronize it using the sun. I > would want it to still be accurate to the minute 10,000 years from > now. We have established that in that case it will have to take the > major changes in orbital parameters into account. Additionally I was > wondering if we should anticipate another calendrical reform in the > next 10,000 years. Although there would be ways to keep the months > better aligned with the seasons, say by making all millennium years > leap years, not just those divisible by 400, on a 10,000+ year time > scale things change so much that no rule will remain satisfactory for > "long". Whether future generations let the seasons drift, introduce > intercalary days ad hoc every few thousand years, or establish a > completely different calendar is impossible to predict. In > conclusion, I would base the primary display of the Millennium Clock > on the Gregorian calendar, with separate displays for other calendars > (Chinese, Moslem, Jewish, Mayan) and astronomical data (precession of > the equinoxes, phases of the moon). > > Art Carlson
The Milennium Clock. On this list many is said about the equation of time, the precession and so on in relation to the milennium clock. And in the quoted mail is said the clock should be accurate to the minute in 10,000 years. Is this possible at all? Think of the decrease of the earth rotation. This affect, or at least a part of it, isn't predictable. To synchronize the atomic clocks to the civil time, which still is based on suntime, leap seconds have to be added. These leap seconds can't be predicted precisely. So at this time it is unknown how many will be needed in the coming 10,000 years. It will be many more then 60 I think. And this correction will be needed to synchronize the milennium clock. I am curious what other readers of this list think about this problem. Fer de Vries.
