Fed2 Star - the newsletter for the space trading game Federation 2

The weekly newsletter for Fed2
by ibgames

EARTHDATE: July 1, 2012

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THE WEEKEND WILL BE LONGER THAN USUAL

by Hazed

We’re having a long weekend... sounds great, doesn’t it? Sadly, it doesn’t mean an extra day off work. You probably won’t even notice it at all.

This weekend a leap second will be added to the world’s atomic clocks. Last night, atomic clocks showed an extra second: after 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds came 23 hours, 59 minutes and 60 seconds before it turned midnight.

This adjustment helps the clocks to keep them in step with the reality of the rotation of the Earth, which is slowing. The clocks are super-accurate, but the Earth isn’t. If the clocks were left to keep running without adjustment then they would start to move further ahead and after many years would be so out of sync with the Earth that the sun would set at midday. So every few years a leap second is inserted to bring them back in line with reality.

Read more about leap seconds here.

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