Sidereal vs Solar Time Converter

Inspectable records

Ledger state

The current ledger marks this instrument verified clean within the source-bound verification corpus.

Area

Earth & Space (astronomy, orbital mechanics, meteorology, geology, geodesy, oceanography)

Tranche

tranche-4

Evidence ID

t4-101

Ledger rows

1

No ledger note is attached.

Review findings

The exact ambiguity requiring review is whether the instrument converts elapsed durations or actual solar and sidereal clock readings. The empty honest_label is a concern: it should state that this is a mean-rate elapsed-duration converter unless date, longitude, UT1, and apparent/mean sidereal-time handling are added.

Formula and scope findings

• The conversion direction is unspecified: solar elapsed time should be multiplied by 1.0027379 to obtain sidereal elapsed time, while sidereal elapsed time should be divided by 1.0027379 to obtain solar elapsed time.
• The formulas describe elapsed-duration conversion only. Converting clock readings between solar time and sidereal time requires a date, UT1 or equivalent Earth-rotation data, and usually longitude; it is not determined by a fixed multiplication factor alone.
• The stated factor 1.0027379 is rounded. Using 86400 / 86164.0905 gives approximately 1.00273790935, so the claimed precision should be documented.
• The phrase 'IERS sidereal day constant' is ambiguous: the listed 23h56m4.0905s is a conventional mean sidereal-day duration, whereas actual Earth rotation and apparent sidereal time vary with UT1 and date.

Unit assumptions

• Inputs are elapsed durations, not civil-clock or sidereal-clock readings tied to a date and location.
• Numerical durations are expressed in SI seconds; the displayed h:m:s values are converted representations of those seconds.
• The supplied rounded factor 1.0027379 is used for all test-vector calculations.
• Solar elapsed seconds to sidereal elapsed seconds: sidereal_seconds = solar_seconds × 1.0027379.
• Sidereal elapsed seconds to solar elapsed seconds: solar_seconds = sidereal_seconds ÷ 1.0027379.

Boundary hardening

BREAK_CLAIMED · SELF_FLAGGED

The stated multiplier produces overflow for a representable near-maximum JavaScript number unless the instrument rejects extreme inputs. The specification also leaves modulo-24-hour normalization and clock-time versus elapsed-duration conventions unspecified.

Errata and corrections

No applied erratum is attached to this unique-name record.

Inspectable example

4 review vectors are recorded. One source-bound sample is shown below.

{
  "inputs": {
    "direction": "solar_to_sidereal",
    "solar_seconds": 3600
  },
  "expected_outputs": {
    "sidereal_seconds": 3609.85644,
    "sidereal_time": "01:00:09.85644"
  },
  "working": "1. Convert 1 hour to seconds: 1 × 3600 = 3600 s. 2. Apply the factor: 3600 × 1.0027379 = 3600 + (3600 × 0.0027379) = 3600 + 9.85644 = 3609.85644 s. 3. Convert back to h:m:s: 3609.85644 s = 1 h + 9.85644 s = 01:00:09.85644."
}

Related workflows

No source-defined multi-instrument workflow membership is recorded.

Sources and evidence

These pointers bind the page to evidence. They do not grant authority or collapse verification into deployment.

• VERIFIED_LEDGER.json · VERIFIED_CLEAN
• evidence-tranche4/tranche4-results.json
• BOUNDARY_HAZARD_CATALOG.json