Wait a second: 2008 gets extended by timekeepers

December 8, 2008

(AP) -- With a brutal economic slowdown, 2008 may feel as if it will never end. Now the world's timekeepers are making it even longer by adding a leap second to the last day of the year.

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• Ausjin - Dec 08, 2008
  • Rank: 2.5 / 5 (4)
  I know the earth will eventually be tidally locked with the sun, but I figured the slowdown was far too gradual to show in my lifetime.
  
  Still, I would have to be pretty obsessive compulsive to care about 2008 being 31,556,927 seconds instead of 31,556,926
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• PB94941 - Dec 08, 2008
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  awesome, i better change my clock, wouldn't want it being wrong.
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• dbren - Dec 08, 2008
  • Rank: 4.5 / 5 (4)
  So, this will happen at midnight UTC. Does that mean than in Britain they will count down to midnight "10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1, 0"?
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• Nartoon - Dec 08, 2008
  • Rank: 5 / 5 (2)
  Arrrggghhh, will 2008 ever end.
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• axemaster - Dec 08, 2008
  • Rank: 5 / 5 (2)
  "I know the earth will eventually be tidally locked with the sun, but I figured the slowdown was far too gradual to show in my lifetime."
  
  Actually, you're wrong about that. The Earth is tidally locked with the Moon, not the Sun.
  
  This effect on the Earth's rotation is intrinsically linked to the fact that the Moon is slowly receding from the Earth - it's a transfer of energy and momentum from one to the other.
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• Roach - Dec 09, 2008
  • Rank: 2.3 / 5 (3)
  Publicity stunt. They act like the year is exactly 365.25 days long. The actual length is closer to 365.26, in that referance the 1 second makes no diferance versus the 10 to 15 minutes we gain each year.
  
  Also can some clarify the differance between 6:59:60PM and 7:00:00PM and 1900:00? Other than the obvious that no one uses 6:59:60 as a time designation. Like saying I'm 5ft 12in tall or its about 1 Km and 1000m to the post office. If their clock actually says 6:59:60 then it might have already broke.
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• moj85 - Dec 09, 2008
  • Rank: 3.7 / 5 (3)
  @ Roach:
  I think the 6:59:60 is referring to the fact that the minute of 6:59 will have 1 more second to it, so in fact will turn to 6:59:60 before switching to 7:00:00pm. Maybe? Yes.
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• Roach - Dec 09, 2008
  • Rank: 5 / 5 (2)
  That was my first thought, but the use of a present participle versus the future tense makes it more likely that the writer, AP gosh knows they know what they're talking about(sarcasm), flubbed.
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• MGraser - Dec 09, 2008
  • Rank: 4 / 5 (1)
  I doubt it was a flub. It could have been the author's "cute" way of describing it. Or, more likely, since they need to watch to make sure the transition happens properly, it will show 60 instead of standing still for one second before moving onto 7pm. Plus it makes logical sense that since there are 61 seconds in that hour, it should show the 60, just as we currently show 59 when we have 60 seconds in the hour.
  
  Having said this, this conversation is stupid and inane....
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• fmfbrestel - Dec 09, 2008
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  No publicity stunt. Yes we gain 15 minutes or so each year, but those extra minutes are already planned into the system of leap days. There is a big difference between the time it takes earth to go around the sun and and the time it takes the earth to rotate on its axis -- which is what they are correcting here.
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• Roach - Dec 09, 2008
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  Either way my chief point was the second doesn't matter in comparison to the 10 minute variations. It's a publicity stunt and nothing else.
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• Centauri777 - Dec 09, 2008
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  I know the earth will eventually be tidally locked with the sun, but I figured the slowdown was far too gradual to show in my lifetime.
  
  Still, I would have to be pretty obsessive compulsive to care about 2008 being 31,556,927 seconds instead of 31,556,926

  
  
  actually, 31,556,926 doesnt cut it either. the days in the year ARE an integer; (3600*24*366) 1 yields 31,622,401 (and YES, I do get obsessive about math)
  
  for details: http://www.physli...e695.cfm
  
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