The root of the problem, of course, is that different things have the same name, and there is a difficulty in determining which one of the two different things being spoken of is being referred to. A "second" is 1/86400 of a day. A "day" is defined as the period of time between a specific point on the surface of the earth having the sun directly overhead, and then the earch "rotating on its axis" such that the same point "goes around" and is once again has the sun directly overhead. A "year" is defined as the period of time between a specific point on the earth having the sun directly overhead AND the earth having the same "rotation angle" around the sun. Then came the invention of something called a "BoodleFuggle" which was pretty close to the length of a "second". Unfortunately, additional "BoodleFuggle's" (leap boodlefuggle's) have to be inserted/deleted from time to time in order to make the "ascending count of BoodleFuggle's" be the same as the tally of "seconds". This would all be quite straightforward, except that some nitwit decided to call the new BoodleFuggle's "seconds" (even though they are not). Almost everything does time calculations using "seconds" even though they are really using boodlefuggle's, and the boodlefuggler's keep on thinking that boodlefuggle's are seconds, when they are not.