"The planet doesn't need an extra second. What it needs is
Posted on 01/01/2006 9:29:54 PM PST by nickcarraway
If life is often a matter of split seconds -- the train door that closes in your face, the chance encounter with the love of your life, the near-collision with an oncoming car -- then the universe is about to bestow upon us a generous gift: the leap second.
Saturday, at exactly 6 p.m. Chicago time, one second will be added to our official record of time -- Coordinated Universal Time, kept by a series of atomic clocks, housed in environmentally sealed vaults in about 80 timekeeping labs around the world and certified by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Paris.
The reason for the extra second is simple: The Earth is slowing down. Since the days of Isaac Newton, scientists have understood the time it takes for the Earth to make a full rotation is getting longer. The gradual deceleration is caused by the gravitational pull of the moon. The same force that brings the tides is putting the brakes on the Earth.
Because time is a function of planetary movement, our days are getting longer and, depending on how you look at it, time is slowing down. This discrepancy is something we have only recently become able to measure. That happened in 1958 with the advent of atomic clocks, which measure time using the frequency of a cesium atom.
When a 24-hour day, as measured by the world's atomic clocks, becomes more than 9/10th's of a second shorter than a solar day, those in charge add the leap second.
Computers, phones take a break
Eventually the 24-hour day as we know it will become a few minutes longer, although it will take millions of years. After hundreds of millions of years, the day will grow an hour longer. The rotation of the Earth and its orbital path around the sun are inconsistent and always vary slightly.
''If we think of all the ways we're being jerked around the universe, we'd probably be hurling in the street,'' joked Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory
Most of us will not pause to notice the extra second. But our computers and mobile phones will all rest for one second.
''If you don't get all the clocks synchronized when the leap second occurs -- you could have potentially interesting effects," Chester said. "The Internet could stop working, cell phones could go out.''
bump
Won't this screw up the GPS system?
When I was married a 24 hour day seemed like 2 weeks.
Because the earth's rotation will continue to slow (at least until a doomsday asteroid strike on the correct angle) everyone reading this can expect the longest day of his or her life to be the day before you die. Just thought you'd like to know.
I hope everyone used their extra second wisely.
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BTTT
I thought it was James T. Kirk who was forbidden from interfering with other races.
"And, no, Superman will not be flying around the Earth to turn back time. It is forbidden for him to interfere with the history of mankind."
Sucks to be him!
You confusing the Prime Directive with Jor-El's instructions to Kal-El.
What'd you expect? Mario Puzo wrote the screenplay.
Anything to add to this discussion?
"The planet doesn't need an extra second. What it needs is
Aaaaaaaah!
As usual, that can be arranged.
oh, wait just a second....
Nope. At the onset, GPS was synchronized to UTC in 1980. Since then UTC has been adjusted but GPS has not.
So by now, GPS time is off by some 19 seconds compared to the cesium clocks at the USNO.
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