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Comparison and Coordination of Time Scales

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2016

J. McK. Luck*
Affiliation:
Division of National Mapping, Canberra

Extract

A time scale may be defined as a system for dating events. A clock is a device for interpolating between observations of the time scale. From antiquity, time scales have been based on the earth’s rotation; even today, the atomic-based time scale Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) is adjusted annually, or when necessary, to keep it in time with the rotating earth. However, the continual search for greater accuracy in time keeping has led to the adoption of time scales based on other phenomena, so that there are now four classes of time scales in use, as summarised in Table I.

Type
Contributions
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of Australia 1979

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