Swans on Tea

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You Twist and Turn Like a Twisty-Turny Thing

23 April, 2008 (03:40) | Physics, Time

Bad Weather Makes for a Long Day

Changes in mass distribution affect the earth’s rotation rate. A little.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colo., occasionally adds a “leap second” to the atomic clocks used to standardize time. The last such update took place on January 1, 2006.

Arrg. And so do all of the timing labs around the world. The determination of whether or not to add (or possibly subtract) a leap second is the responsibility of the the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service.

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Comments

Comment from ecoli
Time: April 24, 2008, 1:23 am

these people make synchronizing my watch quite difficult.

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