On June 30, immediately following 23:59:59 UTC, an extra second will be inserted in order to keep its time of day close to the mean solar time. For one second UTC will be 23:59:60, which has the potential to cause problems with computer systems that do not expect it. The last leap second was in 2012, which almost caused the end of the world (but it was about five months too early for that.)
Wikipedia says:
The article goes on to explain some issues with leap seconds, proposals to abolish it, and controversies over these proposals.
But the solution to all these issues is obvious: we need to better maintain the rotational speed of the Earth! The purpose of this thread is to entertain, if light-heartedly, scientifically plausible ways of doing this.
Note that I said scientifically plausible. Solutions need not be feasible (e.g. they could involve small black holes or neutron stars), affordable (e.g. they can cost a full decade's worth of the Earth's entire GPP [Global Planetary Product],) or environmentally safe (e.g. exploding a few hundred 10 megaton H-bombs in a synchronized order.) All the solutions need to do is fix the problem by better maintaining Earth's rotational speed.
(I'd also like to discuss moving Earth's orbit to get rid of those pesky leap years, but that's a discussion for another thread.)
Wikipedia says:
Quote:
Originally Posted by wikipedia Because the Earth's rotation speed varies in response to climatic and geological events, UTC leap seconds are irregularly spaced and unpredictable. Insertion of each UTC leap second is usually decided about six months in advance by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS), when needed to ensure that the difference between the UTC and UT1 readings will never exceed 0.9 second. Between their adoption in 1972 and June 2012, 25 leap seconds have been scheduled, all positive; this will become 26 leap seconds at 23:59:60 UTC on June 30, 2015. |
The article goes on to explain some issues with leap seconds, proposals to abolish it, and controversies over these proposals.
But the solution to all these issues is obvious: we need to better maintain the rotational speed of the Earth! The purpose of this thread is to entertain, if light-heartedly, scientifically plausible ways of doing this.
Note that I said scientifically plausible. Solutions need not be feasible (e.g. they could involve small black holes or neutron stars), affordable (e.g. they can cost a full decade's worth of the Earth's entire GPP [Global Planetary Product],) or environmentally safe (e.g. exploding a few hundred 10 megaton H-bombs in a synchronized order.) All the solutions need to do is fix the problem by better maintaining Earth's rotational speed.
(I'd also like to discuss moving Earth's orbit to get rid of those pesky leap years, but that's a discussion for another thread.)
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