Experts argued that the last day of the year will have an extra second, being just a little bit longer. The Earth slows down its movement of revolution due to ocean waves. Our planet decelerates because of the braking action imposed by the ocean tides. Based on the data provided by the Naval Observatory, every century, Terra reduces its revolving speed with two milliseconds every day.
- The last day of the year will be longer, an extra second being added.
- The last time a leap second was added was on June 30, 2015.
- Our planet reduces the speed of revolution with two milliseconds per day.
Thus, the rotation of Terra slows compared to atomic clocks. Approximately fifty years ago, scientists decided to measure time no longer by using astronomy. What is more, they defined one second based on the cesium atom. Back in 1967, the 13th General Conference on Weights and Measures, based on the data provided by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, scientists argued that a second represents the vibration of a cesium atom.
Because the Earth slows down its revolving process by approximately two milliseconds per day, then an extra second needs to be added every five hundred years. Civil time needs to be modified in such a way that the atomic clocks of the world do not deviate from the rotational time of our planet by more than 0.9 seconds.
By adding another second to our countdown, we stop the atomic clocks allowing Earth to catch up to synchronize our world. Based on the concept of Coordinated Universal Tim (UTC), an extra second will expand the 23 hours, 59 minutes and 60 seconds day. Geoff Chester, an astronomer at the observatory, argued that the leap second will be added to the facility of the US National Observatory’s Master Clock.
Since 1972 until now, 26 seconds were added. The last time this occurred was back on June 30, 2015. We all need perfect timing in our daily activities. For instance, to enable all Google apps to communicate with one another, we need perfect time. During the extra second, Google is forced to attain a seamless conversion.
Google is equipped with interfaces responsible application programming which is meant to implement its services. Google chooses to evenly administer one second every twenty hours instead of applying an extra second to the servers of the company. To account for the leap second, Google will use the direct smear which begins at 14:00 UTC on New Year’s Eve and it will end on New Year’s Day at 10:00 UTC.
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