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 thread.
View all comments View context
2 points

It’s a programmer thing. As you’re typing the code, you may suddenly realize that the program needs to a assume certain things to work properly. You could assume that time runs at a normal rate as opposed to something completely wild when traveling close to the speed of light or when orbiting a black hole.

In order to keep the already way too messy code reasonably simple, you decide that the program assumes you’re on Earth. You leave a comment in the relevant part of the code saying that this part shouldn’t break as long as you’re not doing anything too extreme.

permalink
report
parent
reply

xkcd

!xkcd@lemmy.world

Create post

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

Community stats

  • 1.9K

    Monthly active users

  • 234

    Posts

  • 5.6K

    Comments

Community moderators