The rotation of the Earth is slowing down. This means that a solar day (the time it takes Earth to make one complete revolution) and the time shown by atomic clocks would gradually diverge. This problem has been solved by adding "leap seconds". There have been 22 leap seconds since 1972. The last one was added on 31 December 2005, which delayed New Year's Day by one second!
Leap Seconds
The rotation of the Earth is slowing down. This means that a solar day (the time it takes Earth to make one complete revolution) and the time shown by atomic clocks would gradually diverge. This problem has been solved by adding "leap seconds". There have been 22 leap seconds since 1972. The last one was added on 31 December 2005, which delayed New Year's Day by one second!
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