[ale] OT ntp - leap second - how many knew what this was 3 weeks ago

[jim.kinney at gmail.com (Jim Kinney)]

On 07/04/2012 01:57 PM, Jay Lozier wrote:
> I did not know adding a leap second was occurring until later. I was 
> aware that Earth's rotation is slowing and periodically leap time must 
> be added to account for it. I am not sure from a purely practical 
> matter if it is important to add leap seconds instead of leap hours by 
> doing something similar to EDT/EST time change but making it permanent.
The slowing of Earths rotation is so tiny it would require a 1 second 
clock change every few thousand years.

The leap second is caused by our orbital period around Sol not being 
exactly synchronous with our rotation rate on our axis. We need to be a 
few dozen miles closer in on average to get a better alignment.


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