SCIENTISTS WANT TO SHORT THE MINUTE TO 59 SECONDS..... HERE'S WHY?
- New suggestion from scientists: We should consider shortening minute to just 59 seconds, at least for one “negative leap second” that will better line us up with Earth’s real rotation.
- This is on the heels of a year marked by many shorter-than-average days, following several years in which Earth has rotated faster than maybe ever before. What’s going on?
- “It is certainly correct that the Earth is spinning faster now than at any time in the last 50 years,” Peter Whibberley, senior research scientist with the National Physical Laboratory’s time and frequency group, told the Telegraph.
“It’s quite possible that a negative leap second will be needed if the Earth’s rotation rate increases further, but it’s too early to say if this is likely to happen,” Whibberley continued. He added that an “international discussion …about the future of leap seconds” would determine whether timekeepers continue their attempts to make up for lost time.
- “In 2012, an added leap second caused server crashes across a number of internet sites, including Reddit, Yelp and LinkedIn, while also disrupting those who use Linux operating systems and software using Javascript.”
- For true legislation of the “real time,” computers must ping global timekeeping servers, but these serve up tiny corrections instead of entire seconds. When the computer’s clock must suddenly believe it’s 12:00:00 for a second
- It’s like starting to climb to the next stair and finding you’re already at the top: you’re likely to trip a little bit.
- As a result, some national leaders have pushed to do away with leap second corrections altogether in favor of using an unfettered atomic clock — shorter days and all. That decision will ultimately be left to the World Radiocommunication Conference in 2023, according to the Telegraph.
0 Comments