Are you eagerly waiting for knock off 2016??? If yes, then you’ll have to wait one extra second to close out this year, because on 31st December, an additional ‘leap second’ will be added to the universal clock. 2016 will be one-second longer than the usual years as the earth is still breaking ocean waves. Nations that follow ‘Coordinated Universal Time (CUT) including multiple countries of West Africa, Britain, Ireland, and Iceland will enjoy the current year for one extra second till the midnight countdown for 2017. It means, the countdown for 2017 will go for 61 seconds long instead of 60 seconds.
On 31st December 2016, at 6:59:59 p.m., the universal clock, used by most of the nations of the world will have a “leap second,” where an additional second will coincide with the world clocks. This addition of an extra second is an adjustment to maintain era in sync with the rotation of the earth compared with the sun.
Under the timeframe conception of Coordinated Universal Time, an extra leap second will be co-occurred at 23 hours, 59 minutes and 60 seconds or 6:59:60 p.m. Eastern Time and this extra second will be affixed to the Master Clock facility of the U.S. Naval Observatory.
According to Geoff Chester, a public affairs bureaucrat at the U.S. Naval Observatory, “Traditionally, mean rotation of the Earth in relation to extraterrestrial bodies defines the countdown of time and the second was characterized by this allusion frame. But, the development of atomic clocks signified a much more clear-cut and precise ‘atomic’ timescale and an extra second that is autonomous and is beyond of the rotation timeframe of the Earth.”
To recall, the official announcement of additional leap second for 2016 dates back to July this year, when U.S. Naval Observatory came with this finding. As per the announcement of the U.S Naval Observatory, the Earth is still breaking for sea waves. And thanks to this braking activity of ocean tides that our planet slows down 2 milliseconds per day in one century. The final effect of this decelerate is the slower rotation of the earth in comparison to the atomic clocks.