What is a leap second and what to do with it? International organisation to decide this week

The children of the world have long learned to memorise the leap-year formula, that is, after every four years February has 29 days instead of 28 and the yearly number of days become 366 from 365. But the fact that has not made to the textbooks in parts of the world is that since 1972, we occasionally add an extra second, a leap second, by the end of a day.

The officials, however, are now proposing an end to the leap year practice. A vote is expected at a meeting of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Versailles on November 18, to abandon the leap year practice by 2035. The IBWM instead wants the world to embrace atomic time until global timekeepers come up with a better plan.

Why the IBWM wants to change the way world measures time?

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According to international conventions, a day comprises of 86,400 vibrations of an atom of cesium-133. However, every day there are some vibrations other than these 86,400 vibrations that cannot be added further in the day for mathematical uniformity. So in 1972, scientists added an extra second to the end of an atomic day.

Also, the Earth's rotation is unpredictable. Moreover, precise timing has become integral to world's highly computerised infrastructure. Financial transactions, GPS navigations are all functions of a second.

Data packages related to these financial transactions must be time-stamped to that fine level of precision, recorded and made traceable back to Coordinated Universal Time, the universally agreed-upon standard managed by the timekeepers at the B.I.P.M.

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Every additional leap second introduces the risk of confusion that some digital networks won’t implement the change correctly, won’t know precisely what time it is with regard to the other systems, and will fail to synchronise properly.

“What was before just a way of measuring the flow of time is today essential for transportation, location, defense, finance, space competition,” Felicitas Arias, former director of the time department of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, was quoted as saying by New York Times.

A vote, in the form of Resolution D, is expected on Nov. 18 at a meeting in Versailles of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures.

“Time is ruling the world," he said further.

When was leap year practice first established?

The leap year practice was first established by Julius Caesar over 2,000 years ago. It was modified in the 16th century by Pope Gregory XIII, leading to the creation of Gregorian calendar.

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