A ‘leap second’ to be added on Dec. 31st 2005

Watch your watches people ! The last day of 2005 will be one second longer than usual. The precision of atomic clocks will be reconciled with the relative variability of the Earth’s rotation on Dec. 31, when an extra second will be added to the Coordinated Universal Time used to tell time across the globe.

The Earth’s rotational speed changes slightly because of tides and other forces, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology recalibrates its clocks occasionally to match them to the planet’s time, called the astronomical time scale. The adjustment, called a leap second, takes place whenever Coordinated Universal Time is out of synch with the planet’s time by more than 0.9 seconds. On Dec. 31, Coordinated Universal Time will change from 23:59:59 to 23:59:60 before moving to 0:00:00 on January 1. The last time a leap second was added was 1998, but usually they’re added slightly less than once each year, NIST said. The first leap second was added in 1972, and often the extra second has been added at the end of June instead of the end of December. [From Cnet]. Learn more about the leap second.

That would make an awesome movie if shot correctly with a plotline and good actors. Ooops, that excludes an Hollywood shooting then !

Articles conseillés :

• Les 120 faux-amis les plus trompeurs en anglais
• Maîtriser l’usage des prépositions en anglais : astuces et erreurs à éviter
• Maîtriser le conditionnel en anglais
• Maîtriser les temps du futur en anglais
• Maîtriser les temps du passé en anglais
• Maîtriser les 4 temps du présent en anglais