time is slowing down (random)!

[trixipaws]

was just looking on net for iceland time zone (coz we going in march! )
i couldnt understand the first paragraph, but it seems apparently we lose one second every 500 days and clocks have to add an extra second or else the time would end up out of sync with the earth/nite&day etc.

The second is the base unit for modern time keeping. The second was previously defined based on the Earth's rotation, but because modern atomic clocks are more accurate than the Earth's rotation the definition was changed in 1967. A second is currently defined as being the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods/oscillations of radiation from a Cesium-133 atom at the ground state (near 0 Kelvin - coldest possible).

The Earth is rotating slower and slower over time, while the atomic clocks are not slowing down. On one average day the difference is around 0.002 seconds, which means around 1 second in 500 days. In order to synchronize the atomic clocks with the Earth's observed rotation, the atomic clocks are occasionally instructed to add an extra second – the leap second. Leap seconds are inserted so that the difference between the UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) and UT1 (mean solar time - observed Earth rotation) is kept below 0.9 seconds.

The leap second is added in the end of June or December. It is also possible to have a negative leap second, where one second is removed, in a case where the Earth is rotating faster, but such a negative second has never been used, and is rather unlikely to be used in the future.

i found this here

 

[tracey 2]

- wow you do learn so much dont you i never new that.

p.s- i dont think you have replied to my post bout your holiday asking if there was room in your case?

 

[glitzyglamgirl]

Actually, time slows down the further upwards and away from the ground you travel. Gravity and time are connected it seems.

GPS systems, satnav etc, have to time correct on a regular basis because the satelites are moving around the earth at a slightly different time rate to us here on Earth. They are slower...and this is the explanation for why they always send you in the wrong direction