[LEAPSECS] leap seconds, newspapers, earth rotation

[John Sauter]

On Wed, 2021-01-06 at 10:36 -0800, Tom Van Baak wrote:
> "Atomic clock scientists suggest shortening minute to 59 seconds"
> 
> This is so bad it's funny. [1] A newspaper headline that's inaccurate
> by 
> a factor of, just, 100 million.
> 
> Why? If time had 59 minutes per hour instead of 60 the clock rate
> would 
> be off by 0.983  And if we had a leap second (positive or negative, 
> doesn't matter), say every 3 years, the clock rate would be off by 
> 1.06e-8. The ratio of those two is 9.3e7, about 100 million.
> 
>  From a pedagogical perspective, it's a nice way to demonstrate just
> how 
> tiny a leap second adjustment really is.
> 
> By the way, a number of news web sites have been carrying "earth is 
> speeding up" and "50 years" stories the past week or so. I've read a 
> number of them. Ouch. Does anyone know who started it? Is there a way
> to 
> track it down?
> 
> It hope it wasn't LEAPSECS; we have had an influx of members in
> recent 
> months. Fortunately the mailing list has remained very technical, and
> pragmatic about the issue.
> 
> Thanks,
> /tvb
> 
> [1] 
> https://nypost.com/2021/01/05/atomic-clock-scientists-suggest-subtracting-a-second-from-minute/
> 

The story linked above contains a link to The Telegraph which is
blocked unless you are subscriber.  Here is an unblocked link to the
Telegraph story:

https://kaleistyleguide.com/news/2021/01/04/earth-spinning-faster-now-time-past-half-century/

The meat of the story is a quotation from Peter Whibberley, said to be
a senior research scientist with the National Physical Laboratory's
time and frequency group.  He is claimed to have said:

“It is certainly correct that the Earth is spinning faster now than at
any time in the last 50 years. 

“It’s quite possible that a negative leap second will be needed if the
Earth’s rotation rate increases further, but it’s too early to say if
this is likely to happen. 

“There are also international discussions taking place about the future
of leap seconds, and it’s also possible that the need for a negative
leap second might push the decision towards ending leap seconds for
good.”

The only reference to shortening the minute to 59 seconds is in the
headline in the New York Post story.  The headline writer appears to
have made up this claim without any regard for journalistic norms of
truth.  I do not usually read the New York Post so I do not know if
this is the regular practice there.

If you take the IERS projection of future values of UT2 literally, the
next leap second will be on December 31, 2047, and it will be a
negative leap second.
    John Sauter (John_Sauter at systemeyescomputerstore.com)
-- 
get my PGP public key with gpg --locate-external-keys
John_Sauter at systemeyescomputerstore.com

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