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Next > Daylight Savings Time Inanity We near the time again
for the inane practice of "springing ahead" by one hour on our clocks. This biannual
hour time shift is a minor inconvenience to the world's timekeepers compared to
adding occasional leap days and most annoyingly, leap seconds. In 1967, by international
agreement, the second was defined as the duration of 9,192,631,770 transition periods
of the cesium-133 atom. Earth's orbital period is not consistent from year to year
due to erratic perturbations of the other planets and tidal effects of the moon
that are slowing the rotational period of the earth. This causes leap seconds to
be added at irregular intervals to maintain agreement with the atomic clocks, which
can cause real problems when synchronizing aviation, stock market, scientific, astronomical
and many other timing systems. Since leap seconds were first implemented in 1972,
22 seconds have been added. Estimates say the Earth has lost 3 hours total in the
last 2000 years. Maybe this explains why my work days seem longer any more.
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