Re: CHAT: Timezones was The English/French counting system
| From: | Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...> |
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| Date: | Tuesday, September 16, 2003, 13:51 |
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On Tue, Sep 16, 2003 at 07:32:50AM -0400, John Cowan wrote:
> 6) hoping that all astronomical and nautical days would be changed to
> begin at midnight rather than noon (unanimous; didn't happen until 1928)
And therein lies the difference between the otherwise-synonymous terms
"GMT" and "UTC". Even when referring to time before 1928, UTC dates
always begin at midnight, whereas GMT dates are as likely (perhaps moreso)
to begin at noon instead. This can lead to confusion when dealing with
historical records, particulary astronomical ones (astronomers being
wont to prefer that the date change at noon rather than in the middle of
their worknight).
Officially, "GMT" is a deprecated term and everyone should be using
"UTC" instead, despite it's narrowly Terranocentric implications. :)
-Mark
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