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geoneutrinos / reactors

Port/cleanup of the reactor page as an independent repo
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Seconds per year #397

Open stdye opened 2 years ago

stdye commented 2 years ago

This uses- "const SECONDS_PER_YEAR = 365.25 24 60 * 60;" in "const calcSpectrum"

https://github.com/geoneutrinos/reactors/blob/094e07e736046b3063eedc24d91462d453b8fc2f/src/reactor-cores/index.ts#L145

Shouldn't the number of seconds used to calculate the spectrum change depending on the year/date range?

DocOtak commented 2 years ago

This "year" is being used to make the NIU value we should not change the number of seconds, but instead specify what we mean by the term "year" in the NIU definition. This in contrast to the LF data which is reported on by the calendar month for some given year-month pair.

365.25 is the Julian year (really it's defined as exactly 31557600 seconds) and is likely the correct choice for this application. We do have astronomical calculations going on, Julian year is what defines the "lightyear".

In some other data standards I've worked with, "year" as a time unit is either disallowed or highly discouraged, if allowed and you do decide to use "year" as a duration, you are usually required get to specify the calendar you are using. (which can be things like 360days long for some use cases)