They have had to add leap seconds in the past due to slight slowing in the spin of Earth. So this would just be removing one that had previously been added.
“They have had to add leap seconds in the past due to slight slowing in the spin of Earth. So this would just be removing one that had previously been added.”
While it is no surprise that the spin rate might vary, it also wouldn’t surprise me if they just got the previous calculation wrong.
Years ago my son asked my wife what Leap Day was after hearing about it. I suppose he was about 5 years old. She explained how February gets an extra day every 4 years because our calendars are based on a 365 day year, but the earth really takes about 365.25 days to go around the sun.
So that quarter of a day gets added up every four years to make a full extra day. And they put it at the end of February because that is the shortest month, and call it Leap Day. And that year is called a Leap Year.
“No, really mom. Why do they call it Leap Day.”