The meeting in London will look at the implications of abolishing the leap seconds and moving fully to atomic time.
That would see atomic time slowly diverge from GMT, by about one minute every 60 to 90 years, or by an hour every 600 years, and there would need to be "leap minutes" a couple of times a century to bring the two in line.
The proposal would then formally be voted on in Geneva.
Damaged pride
The potential loss of GMT has prompted soul searching in the British press, particularly at a time when the country is itself considering switching to British Summer Time, one hour ahead of GMT, on a permanent basis.
The Sunday Times said GMT had "symbolised Britain's role as a Victorian superpower" but that "just as that role has inexorably diminished, so GMT itself could in effect disappear".
British science minister David Willetts has opposed the plan, saying it has become more than just a scientific row.
"This is primarily a finely balanced scientific argument but I do detect undercurrents of nationalism," he said.
"Britain's position is that we should stick to real time as experienced by humans, which is based on the Earth's rotation, not atomic clocks.
"Without leap seconds we will lose contact with the reality of Earth's rotation. Eventually our midnight would happen at noon."
China meanwhile is said to oppose the change on the grounds that its astronomers want to retain Earth-rotation-based time.
【格林尼治时间或被原子时取代】相关文章:
★ 教你分辨真假朋友
★ 双语阅读:全球首富贝佐斯宣布离婚!他们的爱情故事曾感动世界
最新
2020-09-15
2020-09-15
2020-09-15
2020-09-15
2020-09-15
2020-09-15