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Atomic clock scientists suggest shortening minute to 59 seconds
NY Post ^ | January 5, 2021 | Hannah Sparks

Posted on 01/05/2021 11:00:29 PM PST by BenLurkin

Data shows our former 24-hour daily rotation is decreasing incrementally, making the day marginally shorter. For example, Sunday lasted only 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59.9998927 seconds, according to TimeAndDate.com. And though the planet’s rotation rate may speed up or slow down slightly from day to day, due to natural terrestrial and celestial alterations, astronomical calendar trends indicate that recent years have become shorter overall.

Case in point, 2020 beat 2005’s shortest day 28 times, and 2021 is slated to be about 19 milliseconds short of a typical year, with an average daily deficit of 0.5 milliseconds.

The world’s clock watchers are used to tinkering with time. Since the development of the atomic clock in the ’60s, “leap seconds” have been added 27 times to make up for slowing rotation, according to EarthSky.org. However, the last time the adjustment was called for was in 2016. Since then, Earth has begun rotating faster than usual, and now scientists suggest a possible “negative leap second” in order to bring time into equilibrium with our position in space.

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; Science
KEYWORDS: 59seconds; atomicclock; minute; scientists
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To: BenLurkin

[Data shows our former 24-hour daily rotation is decreasing incrementally, making the day marginally shorter. For example, Sunday lasted only 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59.9998927 seconds]

No wonder I was tired all day Monday!


21 posted on 01/06/2021 12:32:03 AM PST by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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To: proust; Chode

Well I guess We need to send in a nuke Dam Buster, use the basic WWII Plan.

}{€££ xizwy or whatever his name is will kill those poor People anyway.


22 posted on 01/06/2021 1:04:37 AM PST by mabarker1 ((Congress- the opposite of PROGRESS!!! A fraud, a hypocrite, a liar. I'm a member of Congress !!!!)
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To: BenLurkin

Throw out every clock and watch. All hail the emperor’s new clothes.


23 posted on 01/06/2021 1:09:40 AM PST by a fool in paradise (Who built the cages, Joe?)
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To: BenLurkin

Cumulatively won’t this adjustment eventually mean that high noon falls at 8am one day and 3pm another?


24 posted on 01/06/2021 1:10:45 AM PST by a fool in paradise (Who built the cages, Joe?)
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To: BenLurkin

So if a minute goes from 60 seconds to 59, can I tell my wife I now have a better chance to last a full minute?


25 posted on 01/06/2021 1:14:54 AM PST by Veggie Todd (Religion. It's like a History class. Without the facts. )
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To: Peter ODonnell

” impressive considering all the human junk that the earth has to move around.”

The junk has always been here just some in a different form. The only exception is meteors and recovered UFOs. I suspect the earth is actually losing weight considering all the spent energy sources.


26 posted on 01/06/2021 1:32:20 AM PST by WinMod70
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To: BenLurkin
And though the planet’s rotation rate may speed up or slow down slightly from day to day, due to natural terrestrial and celestial alterations, astronomical calendar trends indicate that recent years have become shorter overall.

Wait until maybe a hundred million years from now when the moon moves sufficiently far from the earth such that the earth can no longer maintain its 23.5 degree tilt angle and begins to slowly wobble uncontrollably like the planet Mars does. The Moon is currently drifting away from earth at the rate of about 2 inches per year. And it is the gravitational influence of the orbiting moon that is responsible for holding the earth's tilt angle. Without the steady tilt, we will no longer have the familiar seasons we do now. I can hardly wait until I'm 100 million years older to see how this all actually plays out.

27 posted on 01/06/2021 1:39:53 AM PST by ETL (REAL Russia collusion! DEMOCRAT-Russia collusion!! CHINA-Russia collusion! Click ETL...)
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To: BenLurkin

I suggest we shorten the work week to 4.999872 work days......


28 posted on 01/06/2021 3:46:08 AM PST by Mopp4 ("It is a cruel world, Herr Hauptman. You said it yourself.")
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To: BenLurkin
and 2021 is slated to be about 19 milliseconds short of a typical year, with an average daily deficit of 0.5 milliseconds.

Math is hard! 0.5 milliseconds per day would total to 182.5, so one of those is off by a factor of ten. Sign the author up to count ballots in Pennsylvania.

Instead of changing the minute to 59 seconds like the headline states, the real discussion is whether to remove one second at the end of the year so the time goes from 11:59:58 pm directly to midnight. An alternative is to dump the whole leap second idea and allow the official clock to run freely without any adjustment even if it drifts from solar time. Right now they are 37 seconds apart based on previous leap seconds. If the current trend continues this would be the first time a second is removed.

29 posted on 01/06/2021 4:28:19 AM PST by KarlInOhio (The greatest threat to world freedom is the Chinese Communist Party and Joe Biden is their puppet.)
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To: BenLurkin

The headline writer is either stupid, or ignorant. Considering journalists of the day, I’m not sure which condition is worse. The issue is whether or not to remove one second from a SINGLE minute, not all of them.


30 posted on 01/06/2021 4:55:06 AM PST by norwaypinesavage (The stone age didn't end because we ran out of stones.)
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To: BenLurkin

Bad headline, written by an idiot. Read the article. They are are thinking of subtracting a second. Once. A negative leap second. In the past, they’ve added a lead second.


31 posted on 01/06/2021 4:56:00 AM PST by IndispensableDestiny
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To: BenLurkin
Believe the women scientists.
32 posted on 01/06/2021 5:24:08 AM PST by moovova
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To: BenLurkin
I mentioned some info about leap seconds recently in another post.

Personally, I don't see what these folks are complaining about. We already have a mechanism in place to adjust for leap seconds. (forward or backwards). Wikipedia actually has a fairly detailed article about leap seconds. We haven't had to add or subtract a second since 2017.

33 posted on 01/06/2021 7:14:53 AM PST by zeugma (Stop deluding yourself that America is still a free country.)
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To: a fool in paradise
Cumulatively won’t this adjustment eventually mean that high noon falls at 8am one day and 3pm another?

What I read of the article was poorly written. They are just arguing for a negative leap second adjustment. If accepted, it would likely happen in July, and the last minute of the month would be one second short.

There is really nothing earth-shaking about this. We regularly make adjustments like this, though in the past I believe they have all been additional seconds, rather than subtractive ones. If such a decision is made for this adjustment, it will be announced and published by IERS.

The following is from a file published by IERS and NIST.

# 4. The decision to insert a leap second into UTC is currently
#       the responsibility of the International Earth Rotation and
#       Reference Systems Service. (The name was changed from the
#       International Earth Rotation Service, but the acronym IERS
#       is still used.)
#
#       Leap seconds are announced by the IERS in its Bulletin C.
#
#       See www.iers.org for more details.
#
#       Every national laboratory and timing center uses the
#       data from the BIPM and the IERS to construct UTC(lab),
#       their local realization of UTC.
#
#       Although the definition also includes the possibility
#       of dropping seconds ("negative" leap seconds), this has
#       never been done and is unlikely to be necessary in the
#       foreseeable future.

34 posted on 01/06/2021 7:34:02 AM PST by zeugma (Stop deluding yourself that America is still a free country.)
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To: zeugma
For those interested, you might check out the following link, that is actually designed to be read by computers to keep track of leap seconds. https://www.ietf.org/timezones/data/leap-seconds.list
35 posted on 01/06/2021 7:41:08 AM PST by zeugma (Stop deluding yourself that America is still a free country.)
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To: IndispensableDestiny

Won’t this require software patches to account for?


36 posted on 01/06/2021 7:46:16 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: BenLurkin

I would have expected these communists to reset to the clock back 15 minutes since they love communists in power.


37 posted on 01/06/2021 7:47:41 AM PST by CodeToad (Arm Up! They Have!)
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To: dfwgator
Won’t this require software patches to account for?

No, just set the clock one second backward.

38 posted on 01/06/2021 8:19:20 AM PST by IndispensableDestiny
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To: SaxxonWoods; BenLurkin

I thought it was from those politicized nuclear scientists who were moving the atomic clock closer to world political destruction....but because it looks like the Dems will have achieved their dictatorship of the USA. Thus to their warped minds, they should have moved it away from ‘destruction’ not toward.


39 posted on 01/06/2021 8:21:20 AM PST by GreyFriar (Spearhead - 3rd Armored Division 75-78 & 83-87)
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To: BenLurkin

Are these the same buttheads who want to spray crap into the stratosphere to cut down on global warming?


40 posted on 01/06/2021 8:24:08 AM PST by RightGeek (FUBO and the donkey you rode in on)
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