Set Your Clocks: 2008 Is A Leap (Second) Year!
That's right folks, this year wasn't just a leap day year, it's also a leap second year!
Every few years, the IERRSS (International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service), who hold the lofty duties of Earth's official "Keepers of Time" (I love how the Smithsonian named them that; my WoW senses automatically lit up, making me want to gain reputation with their faction), decide to add a leap second to a year, in order to resync their atomic clocks with Earth's rotation.
Why does this happen? Well, Earth's rotation is imperfect in two ways: First, a day is not exactly 86,400 seconds, as a 24 hour day dictates. The Earth actually takes 86,400.02 seconds to complete a rotation. Secondly, the Earth's rotation is slowing down over the millenia (entropy is such a pain), in fact, 900 million years ago, a day on the surface of the Earth was only 18 hours long!
So, if temporal measurement accuracy is your thing, remember to add a leap second on December 31st!
Leap Second Added to Your Calendar [Smithsonian]
Den Den Boy
Posted to In the World on 11 December 2008
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Other stuff like this: atomic clocks, IERRSS, leap second, leap year, NIST, time
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