For more than 120 years GMT has been the international standard for timekeeping, but it is now under threat from a new definition of time itself based not on the rotation of the Earth, but on atomic clocks. In January 2012, the International Telecommunication Union will meet in Geneva to vote on whether to adopt the new measure, despite protests from Britain.
In 1972 it was replaced in name by Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) but that essentially remained the same as GMT. UTC is based on about 400 atomic clocks at laboratories around the world but then corrected with "leap seconds" to align itself with the Earth's rotational speed, which fluctates.
But the tiny variations between Earth speed and atomic speed have become a problem for GPS, the global positioning systems and mobile phone networks on which the modern world relies. "We are starting to have parallel definitions of time. Imagine a world where there were two or three definitions of a kilogram."
The meeting in London will look at the implications of abolishing the leap seconds and moving fully to atomic time.
"Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe.” -King T'Challa, Black Panther
The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it. ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is. ~Winston Churchill
But now that you're retired, you can just watch the seconds roll on by and not even care! tongue:
"Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe.” -King T'Challa, Black Panther
The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it. ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is. ~Winston Churchill
I'm not understanding what keeping atomic time and GMT have to do with each other.
GMT is basically where the time "starts" in the world, not how the time is kept.
It's fun going to the Greenwich Observatory though. They have the GMT line (Rose Line) in the courtyard and you can straddle it, standing in both hemispheres at the same time.
Conservation Voice wrote: I'm not understanding what keeping atomic time and GMT have to do with each other.
GMT is basically where the time "starts" in the world, not how the time is kept.
It's fun going to the Greenwich Observatory though. They have the GMT line (Rose Line) in the courtyard and you can straddle it, standing in both hemispheres at the same time.
Without the leap seconds, they'll have to make the rose line mobile to allow for small fluctuations in the rotational speed of the earth. Couple of centuries from now and it could be somewhere out in Russia.
"Whatever you are, be a good one." ~ Abraham Lincoln
Conservation Voice wrote: I'm not understanding what keeping atomic time and GMT have to do with each other.
GMT is basically where the time "starts" in the world, not how the time is kept.
It's fun going to the Greenwich Observatory though. They have the GMT line (Rose Line) in the courtyard and you can straddle it, standing in both hemispheres at the same time.
Without the leap seconds, they'll have to make the rose line mobile to allow for small fluctuations in the rotational speed of the earth. Couple of centuries from now and it could be somewhere out in Russia.
Not really. The Rose Line is for hours, not for seconds, NTM. GMT or CUT is the 0 hour.
), I can't get real excited about a few leap seconds here or there 
