The good doctor is guilty of oversimplification when he claims that the cycle of the seasons governs the provision of leap years. Already the clause "[calendar year is] approximated to an integer number of calendar days" will require the intermittent correction of the leap years. In times and cultures where the calendar was indeed kept in sync with the seasons, the intercalation schemes often included both leap and fall years; sometimes a month or even two would be added, sometimes a month would be omitted.
Seasonal synchronisation is, indeed, a desirable property for a timekeeping scheme for planetary use. But to have a Galactic, or in the fullness of time, a Multiversal calendar that is subject to parochial oddities of one planet... will sound to me as lacking vision.
I'm not sure. I read that as rounding because the calendar year doesn't get divided evenly by a fixed number of calendar days.
The current system is desingned to keep our dates sync'd to where the planet is in relation to the sun. We round so we always are at point X and a certain calendar date....but if the good doctor is right, the Earth's axial tilt doesn't follow it. Assuming he's right, one day July 1 will not be in summertime, leap year introductions or not.
Until we find a planet that has a "day" than can always always always be divided evenly into it's "days in a year" number, youre right, we can't do that. But none of our definitions has ever worked for that purpose.
(no subject)
Seasonal synchronisation is, indeed, a desirable property for a timekeeping scheme for planetary use. But to have a Galactic, or in the fullness of time, a Multiversal calendar that is subject to parochial oddities of one planet... will sound to me as lacking vision.
(no subject)
The current system is desingned to keep our dates sync'd to where the planet is in relation to the sun. We round so we always are at point X and a certain calendar date....but if the good doctor is right, the Earth's axial tilt doesn't follow it. Assuming he's right, one day July 1 will not be in summertime, leap year introductions or not.
Until we find a planet that has a "day" than can always always always be divided evenly into it's "days in a year" number, youre right, we can't do that. But none of our definitions has ever worked for that purpose.