It was announced that this extra second is being added because the atomic clocks failed to match the Earth’s rotation. To alleviate the one second discrepancy the IERS will add one second in December, 2016.
Where does the one second come from? To me that is a mystery. But in this hectic world we can always use extra time. Does one second really matter? Yes, it does to sync with devices that depend on the earth’s rotation… think satellites.
Another way to think of one second is that with a very very very fast computer one might be able to accomplish several stock transactions!
The IERS was established in 1987 and their website is www.iers.org .
According to their site: “The IERS provides data on Earth orientation, on the International Celestial Reference System/Frame, on the International Terrestrial Reference System/Frame, and on geophysical fluids. It maintains also Conventions containing models, constants and standards.”
And if that was not enough…here is the official bulletin published on the website concerning that additional one second:
“A positive leap second will be introduced at the end of December 2016. The sequence of dates of the UTC second markers will be: 2016 December 31, 23h 59m 59s 2016 December 31, 23h 59m 60s 2017 January 1, 0h 0m 0s The difference between UTC and the International Atomic Time TAI is: from 2015 July 1, 0h UTC, to 2017 January 1 0h UTC : UTC-TAI = - 36s from 2017 January 1, 0h UTC, until further notice : UTC-TAI = - 37s Leap seconds can be introduced in UTC at the end of the months of December or June, depending on the evolution of UT1-TAI. Bulletin C is mailed every six months, either to announce a time step in UTC or to confirm that there will be no time step at the next possible date. Christian Bizouard Head Earth Orientation Center of IERS Observatoire de Paris, France”
OK. I really just added that information to impress. You can read other articles on their website.
So when you tell someone to “just wait a second” you now have that extra second to spend. Use it wisely.
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