New Year on hold: leap second makes time stand still
But leap seconds are added strictly on a case-by-case basis, depending on need. This year's will be the 24th bonus second since the practice was initiated in 1972.
The sleight-of-clock is necessary to reconcile two different time scales.
One is established by the atomic time pieces, which are accurate to billionth of a second per day.
The other is based on Earth's imperfect rotation on its own axis.
The two get out of sync because the planet's spin is affected by a host of slightly fluctuating variables, including solar and lunar gravity, the movement of the tides, solar wind, space dust and magnetic storms.
Even global warming has gotten into the act because melting ice caps have an impact too.
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