Sir, Alan Coren (Comment, Jan 18) has overlooked the point that the Earth itself is a less accurate timekeeper than the atomic clock and is slowing down. About once a year The Times reports that a leap second has been inserted to bring astronomical time and atomic-clock time into synchronism.
To make the sums simple, let us assume that there are 60 leap seconds in a century, so by the end of a century the atomic clock will be a minute fast.
After a million years the clock will be fast by 10,000 minutes, that is by about 1 week, so Coren Junissimus will arrive for his appointment in plenty of time.
DR P. H. BORCHERDS
Birmingham