They say you can never have enough...

Between work, family, and friends, I don't have time to report on all of the news, so I generally keep it to worthy exceptions. To put it one way, I report the news that actually matters. And in light of this monumental event not getting the press coverage it deserves, I think this suffices, for a post...

Due to cataclysmic variations in the earth's rotation, 2016 will be longer than normal. How much longer, you ask? Precisely one second longer, a second that will invaluably added on December 31st of 2016. Now I don't know about you but this leap second is going to radically alter my plans for bringing in the New Year.

The short reason as to why this leap second is going to be added is that Earth technically takes slightly longer than 24 hours to complete a full rotation (~86,400.002 seconds instead of 86,400). To compensate for this slight variation, leap seconds are added as needed (and have been added since 1972). The more complicated (and more interesting) explanation as to why we need leap seconds is that phenomenons such as tidal bulging (which causes friction on the movement of Earth's crust), global warming (glaciers melting push mantle mass), and weather can all alter the Earth's rotation. While they do so incrementally slowly, over hundreds of millions of years, extra hours have been added to an Earth day.

While obviously leap seconds do not noticeably affect life, they do occasionally create headaches for software developers and timekeepers.

Full disclosure: I only posted this so that my newly promoted website wouldn't be as bare in the short-term. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

ABOUT SANJAY

Ukulele strummer, milk enthusiast, and sushi connoisseur. Was the leading scorer on my amateur soccer team last season. I'm also a true nerd at heart and an aspiring rocket scientist.