Nineties delayed a second
NZPA-Reuter London New Year’s Eve partygoers around the world will have to wait an extra second before ringing in the 19905. Britain’s Royal Greenwich Observatory said that time services across the globe would put back their clocks one second just before midnight GMT on December 31 to prevent man-measured time getting out of step with the earth’s rotation. “1989 is a second longer or, if you like, 1990 will start a little later,” said Dr John Pilkington of the observatory, which measures the Earth’s rotation using lasers. Dr Pilkington said slight irregularities in the rotation, which is gradually getting slower, create a tiny gap between “solar time” and that shown by super-accurate man-made clocks. The “leap second,” analogous to the extra day in a leap year, closes the gap between the two. This year’s will be the fifteenth since the device was first used in 1972.
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Press, 27 December 1989, Page 38
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150Nineties delayed a second Press, 27 December 1989, Page 38
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