by "news@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
" <news@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
Mar 23, 2008 at 08:56 AM
On Mar 23, 1:48=A0pm, "Judson McClendon" <ju...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> The rotation of the Earth is also slowing. Have you noticed how many
> leap seconds have been added in recent years? This will increase over
> time.
If so the rate hasn't *yet* started to increase:
Leap seconds 1975-1979: 5
Leap seconds 1980-1984: 3
Leap seconds 1985-1989: 3
Leap seconds 1990-1994: 4
Leap seconds 1995-1999: 3
Leap seconds 2000-2004: 0 (none!)
"For unknown reasons, Earth has sped up after year 2000, so the mean
solar day has become 1 ms shorter. So fewer leap seconds have been
needed after year 2000" [Wikipedia].
Richard.
http://www.rtrussell.co.uk/
To reply by email change 'news' to my forename.