Leaping seconds and looping servers

Posted Jul 3, 2012 8:28 UTC (Tue) by nowster (subscriber, #67)
Parent article: Leaping seconds and looping servers

Don't forget that leap seconds can go either way. You can have the extra second 23:59:60 (as this year) or you could skip 23:59:59 completely (never happened yet). If the IERS determines that the earth's rotation is faster than atomic time, the leap second that would be applied is negative.

Leaping seconds and looping servers

Posted Jul 3, 2012 10:28 UTC (Tue) by ballombe (subscriber, #9523) [Link]

True, but I doubt it ever happen, if only for political reason. The drift is strongly biaised toward positive leap second, and even if a negative leap second would be necessary due to fluctuation, it is likely it would be merged with the next positive leap second due to the pressure to avoid them.