Posted on 07/24/2025 2:56:39 PM PDT by Signalman
Two days this summer have been unusually short, with the shortest expected on Aug. 5, leading global timekeepers to consider adding a negative leap second.
The Earth's rotation has accelerated in recent decades, leading scientists to consider adding the first ever negative leap second.
Earth is spinning so fast that global timekeepers are considering something that's never been done before: adding a negative leap second.
So far this year, July 9 and July 22 have been unusually short — by about 1.3 and 1.4 milliseconds, respectively. However, Aug. 5 is expected to be even shorter, losing roughly 1.5 milliseconds, according to timeanddate.com.
This follows a trend that has been observed since 2020. "We now have slightly shorter days than in the last 50 years," Dirk Piester, head of Time Dissemination Group 4.42 at Germany's national meteorology institute, previously told Live Science.
Earth's energy imbalance is rising much faster than scientists expected — and now researchers worry they might lose the means to figure out why an abstract illustration of a clock with swirls of light Groundbreaking atomic clock is off by less than 1 second every 100 million years
Why is Earth spinning faster? A day on Earth lasts roughly 86,400 seconds, or 24 hours — the time it takes for the planet to fully rotate on its axis. But exactly how long it takes to perform one full rotation depends on many factors, including the positions of the sun and the moon, and Earth's gravitational field.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Ever see a movie called 'The Man who could work miracles'? One of my favorite movies, not well known because it was made in 1936. If you do happen to watch it you'll see why your post reminds of it.
(click on image for the movie)
Man....that explains why I have been having trouble walking the last couple of days.
Unless that economist is Milton Friedman! As for scientists getting it wrong , Max Planck, a Nobel laureate in physics, famously said this:
"A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it"
I don’t know…who would?
I thought the experts were going to suggest ringing the equator with large JATO-type rockets and ignite them simultaneously.
The earth is slowing? I guess the Dems will do two things: Blame President Trump and tax to do a study to see how President Trump did it and to see if they can impeach him... 😀
“… July 9 and July 22 have been unusually short — by about 1.3 and 1.4 millisecond…”
I hope the boss doesn’t dock my pay for those days.
Oops, I meant faster...still they’ll blame President Trump...
Staking a bunch of B52s to the ground full throttle in the other direction to slow us down? (paraphrasing Ross Perot)
Hurculean. Rotfl.
Quick!!! Point all the windmills in the opposite direction!
Women and minorities effected most.
Have the people of earth run the opposite way for a bit to slow the planet down...
We are FReeper. That is not our way.
If the Earth spins faster, wouldn’t our satellites spin accordingly? Wouldn’t the position and height remain the same? Or would they drift off and stay a bit? I’m no astronomer, so I don’t know what the affect would be.
Dang, beat me to it.
/-(
I guess entropy is kaput eh ?
Illustrated light swirls...
Pfft.
Bwa ha ha ha.
THAT WAS ONE STUPID ASS MOVIE!.............
Scientists are considering doing something unprecedented.
Reminds me of the time when they wanted to set off a nuke on the moon.
They should go back to 13 months with 28 days every month. This new system is crazy heh.
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