Second leap to be abolished in 2035 Death row killers escape on motorcycles from US author in Bangladesh

The International Bureau of Weights and Measures has decided that there will be no more leap seconds by 2035. The majority of member states voted in favor of its abolition – only Russia voted against and Belarus abstained.

What is a leap second?

The sense and nonsense of the leap second has been discussed for 20 years. This was introduced to adjust world time to the rotation of the earth. The definition of a second doesn’t quite match the actual time it takes for our planet to rotate once. The Earth needs a fraction of a second longer than the duration of a day, which is set at 86,400 seconds.

To compensate for this pent-up time, an extra second was introduced at irregular intervals. Instead of the hands jumping to 00:00:00 at 23:59:59, the second is inserted at 23:59:60 to make up for the difference. However, this phenomenon has nothing to do with the leap year.

The problem with the extra second

The irregular insertion of the leap second is due to the irregular rotation of the Earth – it does not always rotate at the same speed. This is a major headache for the tech and IT industries in particular. For example, Mozilla and Yelp experienced system failures in 2012, and Linux systems also struggled with the extra second. It is therefore understandable that tech companies have long been fighting for their abolition.

Research has until 2035

The International Bureau of Weights and Measures has now decided that leap seconds may no longer be introduced from 2035 onwards. From 2035 to 2135, a leap minute should be added as needed. Until then, science should look for a less problematic and costly solution to align the two timescales.

If the International Telecommunication Union agrees next year, the decision will be final. The International Telecommunication Union is responsible for the global dissemination of the correct time in the context of telecommunications.

(ann)