A “leap second” will be added to this year’s New Year’s countdown to compensate for a slowdown in the Earth’s rotation.

The extra second will occur as clocks strike midnight and a time of 23:59:60 will be recorded, delaying 2017 momentarily.

A leap second last occurred in June 2015 and this will be the 27th time it has occurred.

The change is required because standard time lags behind atomic clocks.

The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) – responsible for the UK’s national time scale – uses the atomic clock to provide a stable and continuous timescale.

Along with other clocks across the globe, it provides the world with its coordinated universal time… More at the BBC.

So, we have to endure 2016 even longer…

Categories: Misc