Our time is shaped in many ways by spinning events, whether it’s the https://northcentralrotary.org/2019/11/16/rotating-events-in-our-time/ Earth’s rotation around Sun or shift workers switching between the night and day. Certain of these events occur every day while others are less predictable and more unpredictable.
For instance, most people are aware that the Earth revolves around the Sun every 24 hours. But what isn’t as well-known is the speed at which the Earth rotates may vary, making days appear shorter or longer than you would expect. This is the reason that atomic clocks that keep a standard time have to be periodically adjusted by adding or subtracting seconds. This change is called leap seconds.
Precession is a typical rotational event. It is a periodic wobble on Earth’s axis, which is similar to the spinning top of a toy that is a little off-center. This tilt in axial relation to fixed stars (inertial spaces) has an estimated duration of 25,771.5. It is the cause for a myriad of weather patterns like the alternating direction between cyclones in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
Scientists have also noticed that the speed of Earth rotation slows down over time, leading solar day to become longer. That’s why, on June 29th the world added an extra second to atomic clocks, so that they would be more in sync with the actual Earth’s rotation. While one second may seem small but it could have a significant impact for businesses that depend on changing schedules. For multinational companies with a global staff, managing changing call schedules by fumbling around static wiki pages or spreadsheets can be costly in terms of revenue and reputation. On-call rotation software is becoming popular since it minimizes interruptions to services and helps manage transfer coverage and offers transparency to employees.