Our time is shaped many ways by the spin of events regardless of whether it’s the Earth spinning around the Sun, or the shift workers who switch between days and nights. Some of them happen every day and some are more unpredictable and less predictable.
Most people are aware of the fact that the Earth revolves every 24 hours around the Sun. What is less well known is the speed at which Earth rotates may vary, making days appear shorter or longer than what is expected. The Atomic clocks, that maintain an established time, have to be adjusted regularly by adding or subtracting seconds. This is referred to as a leap second.
One of the more regular periodic events that rotate is precession, which is the cyclical wobble of Earth’s axis for rotation similar to a spinny slightly off-center spinny toy top. This axial shift in relation to fixed stars (inertial spaces) has an estimated duration of 25,771.5. It is the cause for a variety of weather patterns for example, the alternating direction between cyclones in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
Scientists have also observed the speed at that the Earth rotates slows down over long periods of time, leading to solar days to become progressively longer. That’s why, on June 29th, the world added one second leap to atomic clocks so that they would be more in sync with the actual earth’s rotation. While the addition of one second may seem insignificant but it could have a significant impact for companies that depend on changing schedules. For multinational companies with a global staff managing the changing schedules of calls by fumbling around spreadsheets or static wiki pages can be costly in terms of revenue and reputation. On-call rotation software is becoming more well-known as it helps reduce interruptions to service and helps manage transfer coverage and offers transparency to employees.
