Leap Second

Posted by Miss Cellania in Science & Tech on December 12, 2008 at 11:55 am


December 31st will be a long day this year. One second longer, to be exact. The earth’s trip around the sun doesn’t exactly correspond to our calendar, as it takes 365.2422 days. That’s why we add a day for leap year every four years, but it still doesn’t come out even, so every once in a while, another second is added to the last day of the year.

The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service is the organization that monitors the difference in the two timescales and calls for leap seconds to be inserted or removed when necessary. Since 1972, leap seconds have been added at intervals varying from six months to seven years — the most recent was inserted on Dec. 31, 2005.

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(image credit: Flickr user slack12)


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COMMENT

11 comments to "Leap Second"

  1. caroline
    December 12th, 2008 at 12:03 pm

    I got engaged on Leap Day this year, how cool would it be if we could work it out to seal the deal exactly at leap second?

  2. Larry
    December 12th, 2008 at 12:26 pm

    Why didn't they take care of this at DST time--we had to adjust the clocks anyway.

  3. Gauldar
    December 12th, 2008 at 12:39 pm

    Like I care, my watch is 5 minutes fast.

  4. Rocky Rook
    December 12th, 2008 at 1:50 pm

    We should have made the world get on one, more advanced, precise calendar in 2000.

  5. Carpus
    December 12th, 2008 at 5:59 pm

    So what happens on New Year's Eve? Does the ball drop at 'midnight' or 1 second later?

  6. Cait
    December 12th, 2008 at 6:25 pm

    10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 2, 1, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

  7. liphttam1
    December 12th, 2008 at 6:58 pm

    11 10 9 8 6 5 4 3 2 1 Happy lead year!

  8. DOJ
    December 13th, 2008 at 7:15 am

    how do we celebrate?

  9. Ali S.
    December 14th, 2008 at 12:00 am

    @ DOJ

    Same thing we do every night DOJ...try to take over the Internet!

  10. TwoDragons
    December 14th, 2008 at 6:32 am

    *falls over laughing at Ali S.* "NARF!"

    Calculating and inserting leap seconds must be a very, very...very...very dry job. I can't help but imagine a bunch of crusty old bean-counters playing with clocks.

    --TwoDragons

  11. Swan
    December 14th, 2008 at 5:26 pm

    The leap second has nothing to do with the length of the year. They are added because the earth's rotation has slowed (and continues to slow), which puts the "sun overhead at noon" terrestrial time out of synch with the atomic clocks.

    And contrary to TwoDragons' conjecture, you get to play with a lot of expensive toys.


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