The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will add an extra second to the clocks on June 30, 1997 to keep them synchronized with the Earth’s rotation. This will be the 21st leap second adjustment since 1972. Leap seconds are needed because atomic clocks, which are now so accurate that they lose or gain much less than a millionth of a second in a year, are more precise than the Earth’s rotation. Since we cannot speed up the Earth, we have to slow down the clocks to keep them “in sync.” The leap second will be inserted at 23:59:60 UTC on June 30, 1997, making the last day of June one second longer than normal. For most people, a single second more or less doesn’t matter much, but for some, a second is a big deal. Modern television, telephone and other telecommunication systems; marine and aviation navigation systems; computer networks; electric power grids; and multitudes of scientific applications are among the critical activities that depend on very precise time and frequency. Many of these will have to be adjusted for the leap second to maintain synchronism with the rest of the world.
Source: https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/1997/05/another-leap-second-hand
Keywords: enabling technologies, quantum devices, semiconductors
