The Shortest Day in History - June 29, 2022
On June 29th 2022, the Earth completed its rotation 1.59 milliseconds faster than it has ever done in recorded history.
Everyone knows that a normal day is 24 hours, however in the last decade the Earth's rotation has been begun to accelerate. Earth's increasing rotational speed has caused some days to end milliseconds early and not complete the normal 24 hours.
It appears that no one is quite sure what the cause of this rotational surge is, but the best guess so far is attributed to the changing of Earth's tides.
Many experts are claiming that this acceleration can cause serious effects to Atomic Time, the way we tell time on Earth, as well the automated systems we have setup.
To counter the rapidly increasing spin of Earth and effects it might have on atomic time, some scientists are suggesting a plan to introduce a negative leap second, which would make clocks skip one second.
"Since we can not change the clock arrows attached to the Earth rotation, we adjust the atomic clock scale."
- Leonid Zotov, Scientist at Lomonosov Moscow State University
However, there are still plenty of engineers who strongly oppose the introduction of negative leap second. There was a blog post on Meta's Engineering page that went on to explain leap seconds, the times we have used them, and ultimately the negative impacts of implementing leap seconds in the future.
The blog post brought up an instance of a leap second in 2013 wreaking havoc on Java and Linux systems, culminating in many sites like Reddit crashing.
"The impact of a negative leap second has never been tested on a large scale; it could have a devastating effect on the software relying on timers or schedulers. In any case, every leap second is a major source of pain for people who manage hardware infrastructures."
- Oleg Obleukhov and Ahmad Byagowi, Engineers at Meta (formerly known as Facebook)
I found this story to be quite interesting, as I thought about the Blockchains, Crypto Mining, and the possible effects a shortened day or negative leap second might have on these systems.
I know next to nothing about coding and what goes into that, I just hope that the blockchains and systems in place will be able to handle any possible effects of the shortened days or implementations of leap seconds. If it does have effects, like taking down a blockchain for a day, I could see it being catastrophic.
Regarding crypto mining, I only have a small mining rig myself so I am not too knowledgeable about mining issues. However, I am curious if there are any veteran Miners out there that feel shorter days may actually cause problems in the future.
Final thought: Days are getting shorter, make sure you spend your time wisely.
See ya!
Resources:
https://hypebeast.com/2022/8/earth-shortest-day-ever-in-50-spinning-1-59-millisecond-faster-news
https://www.wired.com/2012/07/leap-second-glitch-explained/
Originally posted on Publish0x
