1017
xkcd #2867: DateTime (imgs.xkcd.com)

https://xkcd.com/2867

Alt text:

It's not just time zones and leap seconds. SI seconds on Earth are slower because of relativity, so there are time standards for space stuff (TCB, TGC) that use faster SI seconds than UTC/Unix time. T2 - T1 = [God doesn't know and the Devil isn't telling.]

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] kogasa@programming.dev 3 points 1 year ago

Because "relativity" isn't even close to your biggest problem with time. The way we communicate time changes historically, unpredictably, without obvious record. The only way to know what time you're talking about is to know exactly how you got your information. What location, measured at what time relative to recorded changes in the local time zone, with how much drift relative to the last time you synchronized to which ntp server, and so on. These things easily account for hours or days of error, not just nanoseconds.

this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2023
1017 points (100.0% liked)

xkcd

8962 readers
106 users here now

A community for a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS