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No More Leap Second?
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 :)
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Dupes are right on schedule to start out the new year with.
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Boy, this looks familiar... Earth Travel On Time, Again
_________ Help me get a PSP!
Earth changes its spin, baffles scientists
Thursday, January 1, 2004 Posted: 10:16 AM EST (1516 GMT)
BOULDER, Colorado (AP) -- In a phenomenon that has scientists puzzled, the Earth is right on schedule for a fifth straight year.
Experts agree that the rate at which the Earth travels through space has slowed ever so slightly for millennia. To make the world's official time agree with where the Earth actually is in space, scientists in 1972 started adding an extra "leap second" on the last day of the year.
For 28 years, scientists repeated the procedure. But in 1999, they discovered the Earth was no longer lagging behind.
At the National Institute for Science and Technology in Boulder, spokesman Fred McGehan said most scientists agree the Earth's orbit around the sun has been gradually slowing for millennia. But he said they don't have a good explanation for why it's suddenly on schedule.
Possible explanations include the tides, weather and changes in the Earth's core, he said.
The leap second was an unexpected consequence of the 1955 invention of the atomic clock, which use the electromagnetic radiation emanated by Cesium atoms to measure time. It is extremely reliable.
Atomic-based Coordinated Universal Time was implemented in 1972, superseding the astronomically determined Greenwich Mean Time.
Leap seconds can be a big deal, affecting everything from communication, navigation and air traffic control systems to the computers that link global financial markets.
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights taken. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Are we sure we're not slightly behind?
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This proves that the Earth is NOT female.
two days behind
I would have been funny if they posted a dupe
one second after the original post...
Setec Astronomy
must've been posted the first time on the leap second, so it no longer exists and had to be reposted.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
So, does this mean that the acceleration of the earth has changed, and if so, does that that mean we will continue to slow? If we do slow, won't the gravity of the sun effect out orbit? Will we see more el ninjo effects, or other wierd phenomenon? One second could be a big deal.
Rosco: "If brains were gunpowder, Enos couldn't blow his nose."
In what has completely baffled geeks and nerds of the world, CmdrTaco has proven once again for the nth straight year that he can post duplicate stories right on time.
2 /3 0/2317231
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/1
+1 Insightful, -1 Troll. What can I say, I'm an Insightful Troll.
First dupe of the new year!
I've had this sig for three days.
That CmdrTaco is the first-duper of 2004? No..
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
You mean the annual "birth second". They'll still have the birth day.
nobody cares.