Scientists have postponed until 2015 the decision on whether clocks should be linked to the Earth’s rotation around the Sun.
Scientists have postponed until 2015 the decision on whether clocks should be linked to the Earth’s rotation around the Sun.
Tag: leap second
Scientists are considering breaking free from the solar year in how they synchronous their atomic clocks
To leap or not to leap: Scientists are considering abandoning the solar year as their method for synchronizing their atomic clocks.
At issue is whether to abolish the ‘leap second’ — the extra second added every year or so to keep [Coordinated Universal Time] (UTC) in step with Earth’s slightly unpredictable orbit. UTC — the reference against which international time zones are set — is calculated by averaging signals from around 400 atomic clocks, with leap seconds added to stop UTC drifting away from solar time at a rate of about one minute every 90 years.