Reset Your Digital Watch, Saturday Night

posted by Dave Murphy at 12/27/05 19:12 in science (148 words)

The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERRSS) will move time backward one second on December 31, 2005. An extra second will be added at the end of the year to to account for the slowing of the Earth's rotation. The IERRSS recognizes that our planet's pace of rotation is unpredictable, and will institute the first leap second in seven years. Normally the leap second is a nearly annual event.

Saturday evening, the world's most accurate clocks will read, 23:59:59, 23:59:60, 00:00:00; normally there is no sixtieth second in a minute, but for one second this weekend, time will be created, effectively slowing down the world's clocks.

Dave's Opinion
I hope that my radio-controlled clocks will be quick to pickup the adjustment; I would hate to to have my clocks be inaccurate.

References
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_second

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Posted by at December 27, 2005 07:14 PM

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