Tuesday, January 6, 2009

What will you do in a second?


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Have you ever asked for one more second? One second to score a tie-breaking point? One second to avoid an accident? One second extra to make a decision? One second to eat that last bite of cake before 2009?
In 2008 (just days ago!), that was the case. There was an extra second that was added on to the year. The extra second was added on December 31, at midnight. So imagine this; "Just before midnight it will read 23 hours 59 minutes 59 seconds. But instead of clicking over to 00 hours 00 minutes 00 seconds on January 1, it will first read 11 hours 59 minutes 60 seconds on December 31!" **
This extra second made 2008 the longest year since 1992. The reason scientists have done this is so the Earth's rotation can catch up with the clocks. In addition, the idea was to have the Sun at it's highest point during noon. Carrie Brooks said "Our clock and the universe's clock can't always be in sync, so they have to find a way to make it right and fix it." It's true right? In support, the theory has proven to be true. There have been 24 leap seconds since 1972. Some have been June and some have been on New Years Eve.
What surprised me was that this was not the first time that this has happened and that it has happened 24 times before. I thought this was a historical event that only happened once or twice.
After reading this article, I wondered how do the scientists know when to add a leap second. For now, I think it was cool and interesting that something like this really happens. But now that I am thinking about it, what could have I done in that extra second?

Click here to go to where you can get quick and easy facts about this subject.

Click here to learn about more scientific information that is complicated, for the higher level and deeper understanding. **THIS IS QUOTED FROM THIS ARTICLE**

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