Scientists vote to end leap seconds, redefining how the world keeps time– www.scientificamerican.com
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EXCERPT:
Today an international group of scientists, diplomats and timekeepers voted to end the leap second, which has been keeping Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) aligned with the time according to Earth’s rotation (UT1) within one second of difference. The length of a day according to UTC is close to that of UT1 but not exactly the same because our planet’s rotation is irregular. We add a leap second every few years to keep them from drifting too far apart.
But soon the leap second will be replaced with a leap hour, added much more infrequently, which will extend the allowed difference between UT1 and UTC to an hour, or 3,600 seconds.
“After 30 years of debates, we are ready,” said Noël Dimarcq, a senior scientist at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and president of International Bureau of Weights and Measures’ (BIPM’s) Consultative Committee for Time and Frequency, just before the vote, which took place at the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) in Versailles, France.
