AI Image
Timekeepers Vote to Make 'Leap Second' a Full Hour
Newser • • technology
Key Points:
- Scientists, diplomats, and timekeepers at the General Conference on Weights and Measures in France voted to eliminate the leap second, opting instead to accumulate these adjustments until a leap hour is needed, potentially tens of thousands of years from now.
- The leap second, added every few years to synchronize clocks with Earth's rotation, has caused technical issues for websites and computers, leading to outages and operational challenges.
- Earth's recent acceleration in spin has raised the possibility of needing to subtract a second from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) for the first time, complicating timekeeping efforts further.
- The decision to end the leap second follows over 30 years of debate, with experts viewing the leap hour approach as a long-term solution that postpones difficult timekeeping adjustments.
