History
A definition of a terrestrial time standard was adopted by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 1976 at its XVI General Assembly, and later named Terrestrial Dynamical Time (TDT). It was the counterpart to Barycentric Dynamical Time (TDB), which was a time standard for Solar system ephemerides, to be based on a dynamical time scale. Both of these time standards turned out to be imperfectly defined. Doubts were also expressed about the meaning of 'dynamical' in the name TDT.
In 1991, in Recommendation IV of the XXI General Assembly, the IAU redefined TDT, also renaming it "Terrestrial Time". TT was formally defined in terms of Geocentric Coordinate Time (TCG), defined by the IAU on the same occasion. TT was defined to be a linear scaling of TCG, such that the unit of TT is the SI second on the geoid (Earth surface at mean sea level). This left the exact ratio between TT time and TCG time as something to be determined by experiment. Experimental determination of the gravitational potential at the geoid surface is a task in physical geodesy.
In 2000, the IAU very slightly altered the definition of TT by adopting an exact value for the ratio between TT and TCG time, as 1 − 6.969290134 × 10−10. (As measured on the geoid surface, the rate of TCG is very slightly faster than that of TT, see below, Relativistic relationships of TT.)
Read more about this topic: Terrestrial Time
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Literary works cannot be taken over like factories, or literary forms of expression like industrial methods. Realist writing, of which history offers many widely varying examples, is likewise conditioned by the question of how, when and for what class it is made use of.”
—Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956)
“In all history no class has been enfranchised without some selfish motive underlying. If to-day we could prove to Republicans or Democrats that every woman would vote for their party, we should be enfranchised.”
—Carrie Chapman Catt (1859–1947)
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)