5 ms·
A small point I missed that is covered in this article: leap seconds aren't added just because of the slowing of the Earth's rotation (as I've always explained
by creeble 10y ago
A small point I missed that is covered in this article: leap seconds aren't added just because of the slowing of the Earth's rotation (as I've always explained it to others), but because atomic time is a few milliseconds per day faster than Earth time in general.
Not sure how I missed that in previous discussions of leap seconds, but now I can comfortably spend my leap second in 2016 basking in this knowledge.
- arikrak 10y agoWhy couldn't they define the leap second more precisely then? I think there has to be an astronomic reason for the leap second. Either the Earth is slowing down or maybe the they want better alignment between the earth daily rotation and annual revolution.
- creeble 10y agoIt's both: average inaccuracy, and adjusted earth spin.