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No More Leap Second?

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the only-a-matter-of-time dept.

WerewulfX writes "CNN reports: "In a phenomenon that has scientists puzzled, the Earth is right on schedule for a fifth straight year." Update yeah, this is a repost. Whatever- it's a holiday. Nothing else to post :)

3 of 295 comments (clear)

  1. Earth speeds up: anti-leap second! by ljavelin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    CNN Says:

    For 28 years, scientists repeated the procedure [of adding a leap second]. But in 1999, they discovered the Earth was no longer lagging behind.

    Um, not exactly true. Not every year over the last 28 years has had a leap second. For example, 1984, 1986 and 1987 didn't have a leap second. It's generally determined if a leap second is necessary about 6 months ahead of time by IERS. However, this is the first 5 year gap of no leap seconds.

    It's interesting to note that the "leap second protocol" permits a "reverse" leap second - meaning a "short" minute. This is because the folks involved in defining the leap second realized that the rotation of the earth is not 100% predictable, and therefore they theorized that there could be a "fast spinning year" that would merit the loss of a second. This hasn't happened yet.

    This whole rotation-of-earth-isn't-constant idea is pretty new (50 years). So just because we have a 5 year period of smaller rotaional speed deltas isn't totally unexpected.

  2. Re:Mother Nature by Detritus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Heal itself? That implies that there is something natural about the 24-hour day. The Earth's rotation rate has been decreasing for billions of years. An Earth day was approximately 18 hours in duration 900 million years ago.

    --
    Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
  3. Don't bother suggesting improvements by Overly+Critical+Guy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Every time you bother to suggest something to CmdrTaco, he'll either never reply or respond with a really nasty, sarcastic e-mail.

    Taco really abhors change that isn't his. Especially if it's something that's already implemented elsewhere (i.e., Kuro5hin), they'll claim it "doesn't scale well."

    Slashdot is behind the times. Its userbase has become a joke of groupthink and trolls, and the editors don't even read their links or posted stories anymore. It still has the momentum of a large fanbase, however, which just increases the stupidity because we have all these mistakes happening in front of a huge readership.

    --
    "Sufferin' succotash."