Question Details
When will the time be shifted next time?
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Background
As 2008 turns to 2009 at the end of this month, an extra second will be added to every clock.
Until 1967 the second was defined using the motion of the earth. This is perhaps in accordance with our intuition. The earth rotates once on its axis every 24 hours, and there are 3,600 seconds in one hour.
That would be fine if the earth kept good time, but in fact it doesn't. The earth's rotation rate changes every day by thousands of nanoseconds, and this is due in a large part to wind. And the rotation of the earth is slowing down, due to the action of the tides.
Over the course of thousands of days, these changes in the rate of spin of the earth can result in the earth's rotation getting "out of sync" with the high-precision atomic clocks that we use.
To adjust these small variations in the earth's rotation "leap seconds" are added or subtracted. On 31 December this year, a second will be added.
When will the next shift in time happen?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7759281.stm
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