Why do we “Spring Forward” and “Fall Back” every year?
On March 11th we will be “springing it Forward” meaning we will be setting our clocks ahead one hour.
Why do we do this? We move one hour from the morning and add it to the night so that people could make better use of the day light hours. In the summer time the sunshine will last longer and we can make better use of the day when we “spring forward”.
As children we love this time of year because it stays lighter later at night, but as parents…. I don’t know how we feel about the time change.
Did you know that there are several places in the Unite States that do not observe daylight savings time, such as Arizona, Hawaii, and our oversea territories like Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico?
So don’t forget to change your clock on March 11, 2018… Spring Forward
Sorry to tell you HTHT Followers, 2016 will have an extra second added to the end of it!
Many of our favorite celebrities and scientists have passed away, the planet is becoming warmer everyday, and now, scientists will be adding an extra second onto 2016 on New Years Eve.
As you finally count down the end of 2016, you’ll have to make it past 11:59:60, thanks to the addition of an extra ‘leap second’. The extra second in the last minute of the year, means the final minute of 2016 will last for 61 seconds. These leap seconds are added to make up for the fact that Earth’s rotation is gradually slowing down, and to make sure that our precise clocks remain in sync with how long a day lasts on Earth.
“This extra second, or leap second, makes it possible to align astronomical time, which is irregular and determined by Earth’s rotation, with Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) which is extremely stable and has been determined by atomic clocks since 1967,” explained the Paris Observatory in France, which houses the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS), responsible for synchronizing time.
So why do we need leap seconds at all?
The same reason that we add leap days to certain years. 2016 may have felt extra long because this year had a leap day and now a leap second!
Earth’s rotation fluctuates slightly year to year, sometimes getting longer, sometimes shorter. The spin is also influenced by geological events such as strong earthquakes, and even the freezing and melting of ice sheets. So by adding a leap day or leap seconds we can accommodate for those fluctuations caused by Earth’s rotations.
If there were no leap seconds, we would find ourselves to be 2 or 3 minutes out of sync with the position of the Sun by the year 2100.
Image Source: Pixabay.com
So if you want to ring in the New Year 2017 off at the right time….
