>> The gregorian calendar will be off-by-a-day after about 51395 years.
>> This does not take any "slowing" effects into account.
> Isn't this the reason for the "leap-second" thrown in every so often
> by the regulatory authorities (NIST in the USA)? I understand that
> the number of days in a year has been adjusted by convention, to be
> some number that is exactly represented. The result is adjusted to
> be, on the average, correct by use of the leap-second.
There's a mistake in there somewhere. The leap second adjusts for
variations in the length of a day (ie the time it takes for the earth
to spin around its own axis). It cannot adjust for the length
of a year (ie the time it takes (in days!) to orbit the sun once).
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