Time passes and the earth is not always on time! On May 20, 2027, clocks around the world will no longer adjust to the sun. Be assured, no one will lose an hour of sleep: it is a small second that will retire. Since 1967, time has been measured using atomic clocks of extraordinary precision. Problem: The Earth does not rotate at a perfectly regular rate. Its rotation speed varies slightly. To prevent official time from drifting away from solar time, scientists have so far added a leap second when necessary. A minute could therefore last an extraordinary 61 seconds! A small patch made 27 times since 1972, the last one in 2016. But here it is: in recent years, the Earth has sometimes been spinning a little faster. It was therefore necessary, for the first time, to consider removing a second. A real headache for computers, communications, satellites and power grids, which require perfect synchronization. To avoid unpleasant surprises, international metrology representatives decided, on October 15 in Versailles, to cancel this system from May 2027. Atomic time will now be able to gradually deviate from astronomical time, with a tolerance of up to one hour. However, such a change will not occur for a very long time. From our point of view, there is no immediate change: the clocks will continue to function as usual, as will the change to summer or winter time. In short, instead of asking computers to follow the whims of the Earth, we decided to let the planet spin at its own pace! Image created by AI RT in French Dare to ask.

Time passes and the earth is not always on time! On May 20, 2027, clocks around the world will no longer adjust to the sun. Be assured, no one will lose an hour of sleep: it is a small second that will retire. Since 1967, time has been measured using atomic clocks of extraordinary precision. Problem: The Earth does not rotate at a perfectly regular rate. Its rotation speed varies slightly. To prevent official time from drifting away from solar time, scientists have so far added a leap second when necessary. A minute could therefore last an extraordinary 61 seconds! A small patch made 27 times since 1972, the last one in 2016. But here it is: in recent years, the Earth has sometimes been spinning a little faster. It was therefore necessary, for the first time, to consider removing a second. A real headache for computers, communications, satellites and power grids, which require perfect synchronization. To avoid unpleasant surprises, international metrology representatives decided, on October 15 in Versailles, to cancel this system from May 2027. Atomic time will now be able to gradually deviate from astronomical time, with a tolerance of up to one hour. However, such a change will not occur for a very long time. From our point of view, there is no immediate change: the clocks will continue to function as usual, as will the change to summer or winter time. In short, instead of asking computers to follow the whims of the Earth, we decided to let the planet spin at its own pace! Image created by AI RT in French Dare to ask.