Leap Second At The End of 2005

Ruff_ilb writes "Because of the discrepency between an ephemeris second (the fraction 1/31,556,925.9747 of the tropical year for 1900 January 0 at 12 hours ephemeris time) and the second of atomic time (the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the cesium 133 atom), we're left with more than leap years. In order to ensure that the the atomic time and civil stay coordinated, "Civil time is occasionally adjusted by one second increments to ensure that the difference between a uniform time scale defined by atomic clocks does not differ from the Earth's rotational time by more than 0.9 seconds."" And Happy New Years everyone ;)

Comments

Steve Martin says...

[Cuthbert Calculus]

...that Bill O'Reilly says that Leap Second Lovers are Traitors!

Re:How did you use yours?

[nwbvt]

"...at varying degrees of accuracy, modified by the local time zone"

I've got to remember that one.

But officer, I was driving the speed limit the entire trip, at varying degrees of accuracy, modified by my preferred speed.

But boss, I made it to work on time every day, at varying degrees of accuracy, modified by the time my alarm clock goes off.

But IRS agent, I paid all my taxes, at varying degrees of accuracy, modified by the amount of money I had.

Man, this is going to be a fun year (assuming of course I don't get fired or sent to jail)...