The world spinning around the Sun or shift workers who switch between days and nights, our time is affected by a myriad of events. Some of these happen every day and some are more irregular and less predictable.
For instance, the majority of people are aware that Earth revolves around the Sun throughout the day. It’s not as well known that the speed at which Earth rotates can change and make the day appear longer or shorter than it actually is. This is the reason that nuclear clocks which maintain a standard time have to be periodically adjusted by adding https://northcentralrotary.org/2019/11/15/do-you-organize-international-events/ or subtracting seconds. This change is known as leap seconds.
One of the most regular periodic events that rotate is precession, which is the cyclical movement of the Earth’s axis for rotation similar to a spinny slightly off-center spinning toy top. This axial shift relative to fixed stars (inertial space) has a duration of 25,771.5 years, and it is responsible for a variety of weather conditions patterns, such as the alternating direction of cyclones in the Northern and Southern hemispheres.
Scientists have also observed that the speed of Earth rotation slows over time, leading solar day to become longer. On June 29th the world added an additional leap second to the atomic clocks to better align them with the rotation of the Earth. Although the addition of one second may seem small but it could have a significant impact for businesses that rely on changing schedules. For multinational companies with a global staff managing the changing schedules of calls by fumbling with static wiki pages or spreadsheets can be costly in terms of reputation and revenue. This is why more companies are turning to on-call rotation software to decrease interruptions in service, manage transfer coverage, and offer transparency to employees.