The extra second

Nearly everybody knows, what a leap year is. Every 4 years (with a few exceptions) February will have an extra day. This is because a year is supposed to represent the time, earth need so circle our sun. But that’s not 365 days – it’s more like 365,25 days. So, an extra day every 4 years.

Now, “more like it” isn’t quite enough. That’s why there are a few exceptions. Fine, our calendar will be right for so and so long.

But there’s something else: Earth isn’t precise. That means, the time our planet needs to circle the sun varies ever so often. Only by a tiny margin, but it varies. That’s no problem for everyday life normally, but atomic clocks for example are more exact than that and as some things have to be as precise as humanly possible, something has to be done. And something is being done.

The IERS is responsible for adding leap seconds ever so often and it’s going to be time to do so soon. When? 23:59:59 UTC on the 31. December this year.

What does that mean? Well for one, it means everyone in a UTC-x timezone (with x>=0) will have one second longer to wait for the new year. And everyone in a UTC+x timezone (x>=1) will have one more second of 2009.

Now, I’m in UTC+1, so I’ll be in the new year for 1h and 1 second when the next timezone enters 2009. Not that it matters much but… HAHA! 😛

Greetings,
Nepomuk

Sources:

livescience.com

astronomy.com

web.de