Abolish/Maintain Leap Seconds? What would you do with the extra/missing time?

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  • #601702
    Shticky Guy
    Participant

    “The future of the world’s time is being debated at a meeting in Switzerland.

    Experts at the International Telecommunication Union are deciding whether to abolish the leap second.

    This is an extra second that is added every few years to keep time measured by atomic clocks in sync with the time based on the Earth’s rotation.

    The Earth speeds up and slows down as it spins, which means that while one rotation is one day, some days end up being a few milliseconds longer or shorter than others.

    As a result, leap seconds were established in 1972 to keep the time told by atomic clocks and the Earth’s time in phase.

    Six months’ notice is given for the addition of a leap second. They are added once the International Earth Rotation Service, which monitors the Earth’s activity, has found that the two have drifted out of time by 0.9 seconds.

    But those seeking to abolish the leap second say these one-second jumps are becoming increasingly problematic for navigation and telecommunication systems that require a continuous time reference.

    These include satellite navigation, financial services, the internet, flight control and power systems, among others.

    Countries such as the United States, France and Germany want to lose the leap second, but the UK, along with China and Canada, wants it to stay.”

    So my question to you is, give examples of how could this affect your life? I will begin:

    IF LEAP SECONDS ARE ABOLISHED:

    The things that I said I would do ‘in a second’ would have to be done immediately

    IF LEAP SECONDS ARE MAINTAINED:

    I could sit at my piano and play a sixtieth of the Minute Walz

    I would be entitled to an extra day vacation every few thousand years

    I could blink an extra time

    #844616

    I think six months notice should be enough time. I don’t get why anyone would want to abolish it. As for what to do with the extra second, of course there really is no extra second. Just like when you change the clock you don’t actually gain or lose an hour.

    #844617
    BTGuy
    Participant

    Switzerland did not care about the inhumanity which was going on during WWII, but they are meeting over what to do with a second.

    Whatever they come up with, I hope the second does not cooperate. Seconds are known to be the more rascally of the time measurements.

    #844618
    Shticky Guy
    Participant

    Switzerland did not care about the inhumanity which was going on during WWII, but they are meeting over what to do with a second.

    Whatever they come up with, I hope the second does not cooperate. Seconds are known to be the more rascally of the time measurements

    And, of course, I second that.

    #844619
    oomis
    Participant

    I would sleep late, of course… One whole second. It’s like a vacation.

    #844620
    BTGuy
    Participant

    lol @ Shticky Guy.

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