- Adjustment so Earth keeps pace with 'space time'
- Time on Earth is counted by atomic clocks
- Slowly gets 'out of sync' with day and night
- Scientists add seconds to keep Earth 'in time'
By Tammy Hughes
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Time stops for no man - but it appears that horologists will force it to wait just a little on Saturday.
Timekeepers will add an extra second to the last minute of June 30 to compensate for Earth's movements.
The 'extra' second is vital to keep clocks on Earth in sync with 'solar time', so that our days and nights match up to light and darkness.
Time on Earth is measured using atomic clocks, and has to be adjusted to keep pace with Earth's wobbly orbits.
Standing still: Timekeepers will make a minute last 61 seconds on Saturday
WHERE DOES THAT EXTRA SECOND GO? HOW EARTH TIME HAS TO BE ADJUSTED TO KEEP PACE WITH SPACE
Coordinated Universal Time is manually adjusted ever so often to keep pace with the Earth's slightly irregular orbit - and has been since the Seventies.
Universal Time - agreed to be the global standard time - is used to set PCs and phones around the world.
More crucially, it also ensures GPS devices can navigate accurately.
Time on Earth is 'counted' by a network of 400 atomic clocks and sometimes differs from time dictated by day and night, due to fluctuations in earth's rotation.
Atomic clocks measure time to incredibly precise accuracy by measuring vibrations caused by the decay of radioactive particles to count the seconds.
The planet takes just over 86,400 seconds for a 360 degree revolution.
But it wobbles on its axis and is affected by the pull of the Sun, Moon and tides meaning it gets out of step with International Atomic Time (TAI).
To avoid solar time and TAI moving too far apart, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is adjusted to give us the odd 86,401 - second day.
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) has, since the Seventies, been the agreed universal standard which dictates what time it is in every time zone on the planet.
The speed of the Earth's rotation varies, however, meaning that while one rotation is one day, some days are a few milliseconds longer or shorter than others.
Scientists allow for these fluctuations by adding leap seconds roughly every year-and-a-half to keep UTC synchronised with our traditional, sun-based concept of time.
They are added once the International Earth Rotation Service, which monitors the planet's activity, finds the two measurements of time have drifted apart by 0.9 seconds.
Under threat: The U.S. wants to move to a new man-made standard of time that disregards the position of the sun in the sky, rendering sundials useless
Leap-second: It won't mean much of a lie in but Saturday night will be a second longer than usual
'Today, time is constructed defined and measured with atomic clocks' said Noel Dimarcq, director of the SYRTE time-space reference system at the Paris Observatory.
'This allows us to ensure that everyone on Earth is on the exact same time.'
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I'm doing a night shift, so does that mean I can legally demand the extra pay for this second that I have to work? What if someone is on holiday from work, can they claim that extra second as well? There are lots of legal implications here . . .
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So what is everyone going to do with their extra second?
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I don't really understand the technical details but does it mean that I will live another second longer or die one second sooner?
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Time is an Illusion from the back of Julian Barbour's book The End of Time.
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Sorry, I forgot to add, has anyone else noticed how much more funny some of the Comments are these days? Keep it up, it makes me laugh. I try not to be drinking Gin when I read the Comments now.
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This is all so simple, yet utterly fascinating. Yer, I know, time I got a life. But I will never forget the moment when I realised how easy it is to work out the Circumference of Planet Earth. You only need to actually measure the distance to on Horizon, at Ground or Sea Level, natch. And then you've got it. Although I've got a suspicion that someone worked this all out a lot, lot sooner than I did.
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Yey!! A lie in!!!!
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So I can sleep a bit longer tomorrow morning?
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Going to love the extra lie in tomorrow !
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Oh no!! How's my wrist watch and smart phone gonna cope?? :/
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