World's timekeepers will vote to ditch the 'leap second' this week
Clocks occasionally go backwards for a second to keep Earth time in sync with the stars. But the powers that govern time measurement are about to vote to end the practice.
The world's timekeepers will vote this week to eliminate the leap second, which was introduced nearly a century ago to align precise atomic clocks with Earth's slightly erratic rotation. In a conference near Versailles, delegates will decide whether to abandon the leap second and instead adopt a leap hour. The leap second has been added 27 times since its inception in 1972, mostly at the end of years, to correct discrepancies between atomic time and Earth's rotation.
These irregular adjustments have caused software issues for major tech companies, such as Cloudflare and Reddit. The International Bureau of Weights and Measures, responsible for standardizing measurements globally, is considering letting UTC drift from Earth's rotation until an hour difference occurs, then introducing a leap hour to correct it.
This change would eliminate the need for leap seconds and potentially cause software issues, but experts believe it would ultimately lead to more stable timekeeping systems.
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