Unix Time - Definition

Definition

Two layers of encoding make up Unix time. These can usefully be separated. The first layer encodes a point in time as a scalar real number, and the second encodes that number as a sequence of bits or in another form.

As is standard with UTC, this article labels days using the Gregorian calendar, and counts times within each day in hours, minutes, and seconds. Some of the examples also show International Atomic Time (TAI), another time scheme, which uses the same seconds and is displayed in the same format as UTC, but in which every day is exactly 86 400 s long, gradually losing synchronization with the Earth's rotation at a rate of roughly one second per year.

Read more about this topic:  Unix Time

Famous quotes containing the word definition:

    Was man made stupid to see his own stupidity?
    Is God by definition indifferent, beyond us all?
    Is the eternal truth man’s fighting soul
    Wherein the Beast ravens in its own avidity?
    Richard Eberhart (b. 1904)

    I’m beginning to think that the proper definition of “Man” is “an animal that writes letters.”
    Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)