[meteorite-list] Can you give me a second? (GPS, a kiss & time)

From: MexicoDoug_at_aol.com <MexicoDoug_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Dec 27 04:16:24 2005
Message-ID: <24c.45a6ea6.30e26063_at_aol.com>

Hola Olde and New Acquaintances, Free seconds for everyone, one per person,
for Time Gone By!! A wonderful song around 5 years back also lamented "I
don't pardon time because time doesn't pardon me."

Well ... time really is being pardoned this Saturday night ! For all of the
busy people of the world, one second will be forgiven a minute before
midnight entering into the New Year! That will be London time, of course, so get
ready as the New York clock goes from 18:59:59 to 18:59:60 to 19:00:00 upon
the 61st second. (That's 7PM in New York, and time zones east of London will be
registering it in the wee hours of 2006). Which one of our nuclear-powered
list members has the gadget that registers this in real time?! Ha! ha!

That will make 2005 the longest year in "measurable" history, excepting the
29-day February leap years, of course. If you consider leap-day years, 1992
is the king of time since it had both a leap year and a leap second on top of
that, just like only 1972 and 1976 have had. I think. For the time zones
in the Western longitudes!

This happens because earth's rotation is slowing, but the method of counting
cesium atom vibrations by the atomic clocks doesn't catch on to this
phenomenon, mainly hand-waved away as "tidal braking". The theory as to why we are
spinning slower still isn't finished, but it generally revolves around the
fact that the Moon is the culprit, because the tides it induces turn some of
that rotational energy into an odd type of friction - that gets transferred to
the Moon, or maybe causes an epsilon of global warming as convoluted tidal
cycles are damped in innumerable ways. No one expects this to be a problem,
nor that we will reach ...."The Day the Earth Stood Still".

Well time is always synchronized to the earth's rotation, so never mind that
since 1821 we haven't had a day of 86,400 (24x60x60) seconds. Nowadays,
days are a bit more than 86,400.002 seconds, so we are loosing about two tenths
of a second every three years. We'll be around four tenths of a second in
another second if this interval continues.

Due to the fact that a round earth doesn't fit into a square clock, time has
been manipulated like this 22 times since 1972 by the Men in Black! Now we
are going for the 23rd second!

GPS won't be affected since these changes could cause a sudden Y2K-styled
Y2m bug in some applications. GPS uses 1980 as the base year, so for everyone
who uses a GPS to boastfully set their watch using satellite time - it just
might be 13 seconds faster than you think:), the number of leap seconds those
naughty Men in Black have added behind our back...since 1980...

Surely Ben Franklin wouldn't miss this opportunity except for his life.
He'd certainly be in France charmingly having his bottoms up with a Parisian
damsel (and down a bit of fine Champagne, too) in this extra second in his
Franklin's Planner. Maybe time to take a cue from the guy who invented the
concept of Daylight Saving Time.

2005 - A leap year? Yes !!! :-) For further information, contact the "Men
in Black" at this seemingly innocuous web site... or just enjoy a whether it
be a whole pint stowp or just a right gude-willie waught!!

Have fun in Limbo, Doug
Received on Tue 27 Dec 2005 04:16:19 AM PST