Use of Leap Seconds to Be Discontinued

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The BIPM has resolved to discontinue use of leap seconds starting in 2035.

By near-unanimous vote, the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) has resolved to abandon the leap second, reports Kevin Purdy at Ars Technica.

Starting in 2035, “the leap second, the remarkably complicated way of aligning the Earth's inconsistent rotation with atomic-precision timekeeping, will see its use discontinued. Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC, will run without them until 2135,” Purdy says.

“Leap seconds have occasionally been added to official timekeeping records to reflect changes in the Earth's angular rotation and a way of measuring time called UT1,” explains Simon Sharwood. However, discontinuing their use has been debated since at least 2013, “on grounds that they're more trouble than they're worth and represent risks to important communications and computing systems.”

Read more at Ars Technica and The Register.

12/01/2022

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