2016 Will Be One Second Longer Than Expected
From space missions to Netflix, it’s amazing the difference an extra second can make.
No more complaining that there’s not enough time to get it all done: On the last day of this year, you’ll have a whole extra second to finalize your New Year’s resolutions.
According to timekeepers at the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service, the time determined by super-regular atomic clocks and the observed rotation of Earth have yet again become mismatched.
As long as all the world’s computer systems engineers have their ones and zeros in a row, there’ll be an additional breath of time at 6:59:59 p.m. ET on December 31, the U.S. Naval Observatory announced on July 6.
Modern timepieces tick to the rhythm of Earth’s rotation based on the 24 hours it takes for the planet to
