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Did it seem like a long year?

by Mel Martin Dec 30th 2008 at 4:00PM

You might not notice it, but actually 2008 will be one second longer than a standard year (or, as comments point out, one day + one second -- it is a leap year as well!), as scientists add that leap second to make up for variations in the speed of the rotation of the earth.

The change will come on the stroke of midnight Universal Time. That adjustment will take place automatically for GPS systems, Internet time servers, and radio time signals around the world.

Like most things in our world, there is a bit of a debate on all this time changing, with some serious proposals to abolish the leap second completely.

You'll be happy to know that your Mac will take the time change in stride, and add the appropriate second when needed. Modern Windows versions are also ready to sync up.

Just make sure your computers are using an Internet time server to set the date and time automatically, which in OS X is switched on by default. If you are not connected to the Internet, the sync will happen next time you are. Now, doesn't all the anxiety you had about this go away?

via [Silicon Alley Insider]

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You might not notice it, but actually 2008 will be one second longer than a standard year (or, as comments point out, one day + one second...
 

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Mechcozmo

Actually, GPS systems DON'T automatically update; they broadcast seconds since midnight GMT in 1980 along with the difference from UTC. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS#Timekeeping for all the details... yeah, it's nitpicking, but damnitall, if they're there, I'll pick 'em.

December 31 2008 at 11:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Sam

3 ... 2 ... 1 ... 1 ... Happy New Year!

December 31 2008 at 1:54 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Sebastian

"You'll be happy to know that your Mac will take the time change in stride, and add the appropriate second when needed."

Please stop forcing stories to be Apple news when they're clearly not, this hardly passes as news, there's nothing wrong when every once in a while the word "Mac" or "Apple" does not appear in a post.

December 31 2008 at 4:35 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Weijun

“You'll be happy to know that your Mac will take the time change in stride, and add the appropriate second when needed.”

I really don't understand what this means. OS X can sync its time with a time server so it will catch up with the "real" time on Jan 1. On the other hand, if the auto-sync is not enabled, it seems the system itself does not know this leap second thing. I've just tried to manually adjust the clock. When the time is set to 23:59:59 Dec 31 2008 UTC, I thought when I click the up button for the second, it will show something like 60, but it's still 00.

December 30 2008 at 8:47 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Weijun's comment
Michael Rose

It means that if you have the network time service turned on, as Mel notes and you cited, your machine will auto-set. Since leap seconds are determined observationally and aren't preprogrammed into Mac OS X, your machine won't hold back if you aren't synchronizing.

December 30 2008 at 8:56 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
grull27

Why is there a big debate on ONE second?

December 30 2008 at 6:09 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to grull27's comment
Dani Reader

Did you know at the time of the big bang, the universe expanded to a size several hundred times that of our sun in less than a second? Also a Bullet can be fired from a gun to a target in less than a second. Everything we've measured scientifically for several hundred years has been based on our assumptions on the length of a second. If the leap second is eliminated, lots of things could change...

December 30 2008 at 6:25 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Eric

This is why we should eliminate date and time altogether, and just do things based on if we feel like it.

December 30 2008 at 5:34 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
3 replies to Eric's comment
Carlos

So during the countdown, we have to say "One!" twice?

December 30 2008 at 5:34 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
MARC

Stroke of midnight universal time?

Heres a better way to describe when and how its going down from the article you sourced:

"This year will be a second longer than usual: The folks who control the world's official clocks will add a "leap second"at 11:59:59 p.m. GMT on Dec. 31 to make up for two slightly different time scales -- atomic clocks and Earth's rotation."

December 30 2008 at 4:55 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Truth Hurts

Actually...2008 will be one second and one day longer than a standard year...leap year and all. You might say it's the longest year ever.

December 30 2008 at 4:53 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Johan Carlberg

Well, as 2008 happens to be a leap year 2008 is about 86399 seconds longer than a standard year, but we get your point.

December 30 2008 at 4:52 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Johan Carlberg's comment
Truth Hurts

You had to go and submit that right before me, didn't you...

December 30 2008 at 4:53 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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