Earth's Rotational Speed Increasing

[Graeme]

From APNews.com:
"For the first time in history, world timekeepers may have to consider subtracting a second from our clocks in a few years because the planet is rotating a tad faster than it used to. Clocks may have to skip a second — called a “negative leap second” — around 2029, a study in the journal Nature said Wednesday."


https://apnews.com/article/leap-second- ... 04897032a4


Graeme

[stuck]

[GeoffW]

Does that mean a longer year, or a shorter one?

[Graeme]

Does that mean a longer year, or a shorter one?

It's caused by the Moon moving further away from us causing the Earth's rotation to increase because the two are tidally locked (well the Moon is, the Earth will be too in a few eons) It means a shorter day but the Earth's orbit around the Sun will remain unaffected so the duration of a year will not change.

Graeme

[GeoffW]

The duration of a year will change by one second. But does that .make the year one second shorter or one second longer?

[HansV]

If clocks are put back by 1 second - the negative correction proposed - a year in clock time will be 1 second longer.
If clocks are put forward by 1 second, as has happened in the past, a year in clock time will be 1 second shorter.
As Graeme noted, the duration of the solar year (1 revolution around the Sun) is not affected by this - it remains the same number of seconds.

[ChrisGreaves]

"For the first time in history, world timekeepers may have to consider subtracting a second from our clocks in a few years because

How confusing!
I take this statement as meaning that whereas in the past a leap-second has been added, this will be the first time that a leap-second has been subtracted.

https://apnews.com/article/leap-second- ... 04897032a4
"Earth’s changing spin is threatening to toy with our sense of time, clocks and computerized society in an unprecedented way — but only for a second."

Another confusing statement which, I think, can be read as meaning that for a mere 1/3600th of an hour things will change, but then can revert back to normal.
Yes, I understand that we will effectively "setting our clocks forward by one second", and I am not sure how I would translate science into people-speak, but if nothing else it highlights how difficult it can be to translate science for humanity.
And that makes me stand in awe of writers like Dawkins and Pinker who can lead me into understanding.
Cheers, Chris

[Jay Freedman]

Of course, most people won't notice a negative leap second any more than they noticed the positive ones. It occurred to me that adding and subtracting leap seconds could cause trouble for global positioning systems -- would someone be tasked with visiting each satellite to reset its clock, like the clocks in our cars?

Fortunately, the designers have taken that issue into consideration.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_cl ... te_systems

[Steve_in_Kent]

The thread has assumptions...

1. The Earth is a globe.

[HansV]

[ChrisGreaves]

The thread has assumptions... 1. The Earth is a globe.

There's a YoutTube video for that!
Cheers, Chris