If it feels like you don’t have enough time in the day, there’s a reason for that. A scientific one, in fact.
A new study found that Earth’s rotation speed has increased quite a bit, causing a day this past June to be 1.59 milliseconds shorter than the average day, which is about 86,400 seconds. Apparently, Earth’s rotation has been speeding up since 2016, according to scientist Leonid Zotov, and shows no signs of slowing back down. In 2020, for example, scientists recorded the 28 shortest days since 1960.
Zotov believes the Earth’s tides might be throwing its rotation off balance. Other theories include an abnormal motion within the Earth’s core, seismic activity, and the melting of glaciers in the Earth’s northern and southern poles.
One possible solution to this completely uncontrollable problem is to add a “leap second” to the clocks. The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service already does this occasionally, but there’s a sizable group of scientific thinkers opposed to this. I am also opposed to the idea — not because I know anything about any of this, but because I really dislike the idea of a random international bureaucratic agency controlling how we count time. Call it a gut feeling or the consequence of watching one too many Marvel movies, but it seems like a bad investment of authority just waiting to be abused.
Besides, who’s going to miss 1.59 milliseconds anyway?
