HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! (plus a free leap-second)

**JediTricks** · 01-01-2006

Enjoy your free extra second! Yes, new year's midnight gained a free extra second, every 7 years it's a Leap Second to reset to the world's not-quite-accurate rotation, so it went 11:59:59pm, 12:00:00am, 12:00:00am, 12:00:01am... they've added an extra second into the atomic clock and other official timekeepers around the world, huzzah.

Anyway, it's raining here in LA so there's not much to do today, I feel bad for the poor souls sleeping on the streets of Pasadena for tomorrow's Tournament of Roses parade (it's never held on Sunday because of a law meant to protect the parked horses of churchgoers from being spooked by parade floats), last night we drove by the Rose Bowl and got to peek into the tents where they're prepping the floats, that was cool, there's a whole city of RVs there doing the float decoration thing so that was wild.

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[FONT=Arial](only 358 days until xmas) [/FONT]

**JimJamBonds** · 01-01-2006

Anybody care to do the math on how long it will take the earth to stop rotating???

**LusiferSam** · 01-02-2006

Originally Posted by JediTricks

every 7 years it's a Leap Second to reset to the world's not-quite-accurate rotation

That's not quite right. It's been 7 years since the last leap second was added. Leap seconds are added a need be.

**Rebo's_Guitarist** · 01-02-2006

So I went for a drive Saturday night and I wanted to see how fast my jeep would go......it went a lot faster than I predicted, because when I stopped I was in the year 2006...................erie.............how to get home I dont know....

**JimJamBonds** · 01-02-2006

Originally Posted by LusiferSam

That's not quite right. It's been 7 years since the last leap second was added. Leap seconds are added a need be.

OR taken away as needed (although I can't remember if there has ever been one taken away ever).

**LusiferSam** · 01-02-2006

Originally Posted by JimJamBonds

OR taken away as needed (although I can't remember if there has ever been one taken away ever).

Correct. And no, we have never lost a second as a correction. It's very unlikely to ever be the case where a second is taken back. That's because the Earth is slowing due the interaction with the Moon. At some point in the distant future we'll be in a tidal lock with the Moon and this will no longer be the dominant effect. I don't remember what the next most important factor is, it's either the Sun or Jupiter.