Earth’s rotation subtly changes the length of the day. Now our clocks won’t change with it — at least not for a very long time.

A new system, called the “leap hour,” will allow Earth’s rotation and official time to fall out of alignment by a full hour

Abolishing the leap second could help prevent future computer-system failures caused by time adjustments. Humanity uses two main timekeeping systems, but their readings do not always change at the same rate. For decades, the leap second was used to reconcile these systems – a small adjustment to international time that helped maintain consistency between the precision of […] Post Time Will No Longer Be Adjusted: The World Is Permanently Abolishing the Leap Second at Root-Nation.com.

A new system, called the “leap hour,” will allow Earth’s rotation and official time to fall out of alignment by a full hour

by Daniel AJ Sokolov — Heise Online

International delegates agree leap second no longer tenable, but first leap hour not likely to happen for thousands of years

Attached: 1 audio Since the #LeapSecond is now history, it seems a good time to re-post this recording of the UK's #SpeakingClock from the end of December 2016, the occasion of the final leap second.

Since 1972, experts have added 27 seconds to Coordinated Universal Time to keep it aligned with Earth's rotation, but it has been an imperfect fix

Global metrology body votes to retire the leap second, moving civil time to continuous UTC with a one-hour maximum drift.

After decades of debate, international timekeeping experts have voted to replace leap seconds with a leap hour, aiming to prevent disruptions in computer systems that struggle with the irregularity of minutes lasting 61 or 59 seconds. The decision, made at a conference in France by 69 countries represented at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, means coordinated universal time (UTC) can drift up to an hour from astronomical time before a leap hour is required, though this is unlikely to occur for thousands of years. Dr Setnam Shemar, principal scientist at the UK's National Physical Laboratory, explained that leap seconds have caused technical issues since their introduction in 1972, with systems freezing during the 2012 leap second event, affecting platforms like Reddit and LinkedIn. The Earth's rotation has accelerated in recent years, raising the possibility of needing a negative leap second, which would require removing a second from UTC, a scenario that could cause even greater system failures. The move to adopt the leap hour, rather than continuing with leap seconds, is intended to reduce risks to global infrastructure dependent on precise timekeeping. While the UK and Russia had concerns about the change, particularly regarding Greenwich Mean Time and satellite navigation systems, the decision has been approved. The International Earth Orientation Centre in Paris, which tracks Earth's rotation, noted that the leap hour decision is largely a long-term planning measure, as the next leap hour would not be needed for an extremely long time. This change reflects the growing reliance on atomic clocks for precise timekeeping, which have become essential for modern technology, communications, and global infrastructure, while the Earth's rotation remains unpredictable due to natural forces like the molten core and ocean shifts.