The Leap Second

Did you enjoy yesterday’s Leap Second? At the time of its appearance I was well away in the land of nod, but earlier in the day had an ideal opportunity to put the Leap Second to good use as my internet connection went on the fritz and I had to wait a few seconds for things to start firing on all cylinders again.

They’re complicated things to get your head around, Leap Seconds. The Earth’s time is slower than artificial atomic time, or something, so every now and again we have to have an extra second added to the Universal Time standard (which is based on the ultra efficient atomic time) to keep everything in sync.

I’m sure it would be easier to add up all of these seconds and then put them onto February 29th each time that comes around… but then again, I’m not a scientist and neither am I a good timekeeper, so I shouldn’t really be offering my opinion here.

I mean to say, the clock in my car is two hours and ten minutes earlier than my alarm clock, and the Grandfather Clock is about five minutes faster. The time on my mobile phone is two minutes slower, and I’m sure that the minutes on my microwave (which I’m positive must run on atomic time) are quicker than the minutes on the clock on the Landing. I can’t see any of these timepieces (apart from the microwave) being altered by an additional second here and there, so, not only are they out of sync with each other, they are also out of sync with the system that is meant to be keeping time in sync!

Honestly, it’s a wonder sometimes I don’t meet myself coming backwards!

The scientific community are voting this year on whether to abolish the use of the Leap Second, which was only introduced back in 1972. Since then there have been 26 of them. June 30th or December 31st are the dates used, and obviously the last one was yesterday.

If the vote is passed, it will mean the end of one of the oldest timepieces of, erm, all time… the sundial. The sundial will become obsolete if Leap Seconds are abolished.

Not a bad feat for something introduced back in 1972 compared to something used to tell the time since time began.

Now, what do you think? Are these Leap Seconds needed to keep things tickerty-boo, or are they just a waste of time?