#2867: DateTime
Permalink
Transcript
[Ponytail is talking to Cueball.]
Ponytail: Event #1 happened at time T1.
Cueball: Okay.
Ponytail: Then event #2 happened at time T2.
Cueball: Mhmm.
Ponytail: How would you calculate how much time elapsed between T1 and T2?
[The comic splits into two paths, each with a caption at the top.]
[Path 1, upper right panel]
Caption: Normal person:
Cueball: T2 minus T1.
[Path 2, lower right panel]
Caption: Anyone who's worked on datetime systems:
[Cueball has his arms raised.]
Cueball: It is impossible to know and a sin to ask!
(Sourced from explainxkcd.com)
Title 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.]