🚨 #BREAKING Leap seconds are getting dropped to protect computer systems
⏱️ Atomic clocks will finally be allowed to run freely without emergency adjustments after international officials voted to drop leap seconds starting on May 20, 2027. The General Conference on Weights and Measures approved the change on October 15, 2026, under the Metre Convention, with only Russia voting against it. Coordinated Universal Time will become a continuous scale that can drift away from Earth's rotation.
Back in 1972, operators started adding extra seconds to atomic clocks to keep them matched with Earth. Earth's rotation speed shifts unpredictably because of melting polar ice and deep core movements, requiring irregular adjustments every year and a half.
Computer systems calculate time using atomic clocks, but software cannot handle backward-stepping clocks. Climate shifts raised the chance of requiring a negative second before 2035, which would cause widespread system failures.
#time ⚡ #technology ⚡ #science
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⏱️ Atomic clocks will finally be allowed to run freely without emergency adjustments after international officials voted to drop leap seconds starting on May 20, 2027. The General Conference on Weights and Measures approved the change on October 15, 2026, under the Metre Convention, with only Russia voting against it. Coordinated Universal Time will become a continuous scale that can drift away from Earth's rotation.
Back in 1972, operators started adding extra seconds to atomic clocks to keep them matched with Earth. Earth's rotation speed shifts unpredictably because of melting polar ice and deep core movements, requiring irregular adjustments every year and a half.
Computer systems calculate time using atomic clocks, but software cannot handle backward-stepping clocks. Climate shifts raised the chance of requiring a negative second before 2035, which would cause widespread system failures.
#time ⚡ #technology ⚡ #science
Subscribe