Officials meeting in France this week voted to end the practice of adding leap seconds to universal time, a system used since 1972 to correct for Earth's rotation.
01Summary
- 01Since 1972, 27 leap seconds have been added to the universal clock.
- 02The decision to abandon leap seconds was made at a meeting in France this week.
- 03Leap seconds were originally introduced to keep atomic time in sync with Earth's rotation.
- 04The change means time will no longer be adjusted by adding an extra second.
- 05The vote ends decades of debate over the disruptive effects of leap seconds on digital systems.
02Why it matters
This affects anyone relying on precise timekeeping, from global financial markets and telecommunications to satellite navigation systems, which have experienced glitches due to leap-second adjustments.
Pulse AIAsk about this story
Answers are generated by AI from the story summary; they are not investment, health or legal advice.
