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Rotating Events in Our Time
If it’s the Earth rotating around the Sun or shift workers switching between days and nights the way we live our lives is shaped by many spinning events. Certain of these events occur every day, while others are less predictable and more unpredictable.
Most people know that the Earth revolves every 24 hours around the Sun. But what isn’t as well-known is the speed at which Earth rotates can vary making the day appear shorter or longer than you would expect. This variation is why the atomic clocks that maintain standardized time must be regularly adjusted by adding or subtracting seconds. This is referred to as a leap second.
One of the more frequent rotating events is precession, which is the cyclical wobble that occurs on the Earth’s axis of rotation similar to a spinny slightly off-center spinning toy top. This axial shift relative to fixed stars (inertial space) has a period of 25,771.5 years and is responsible for various weather patterns, such as the changing direction of cyclones in the Northern and Southern hemispheres.
Scientists have also noticed that the speed of Earth rotation slows over time, leading solar day to get longer. On June 29th, the world added an extra leap second to the atomic clocks to better align them with the axis of the Earth. While the addition of one second may seem minor, it has significant implications for businesses who rely on changing schedules. For example, for multinational companies that depend on the world’s workforce, having to fumble through static wiki pages and spreadsheets to manage changing call schedules can easily become expensive in terms of revenue and company reputation. This is why more companies are turning to software for on-call rotation to reduce service interruptions and ensure that transfer coverage is covered and ensure transparency for employees.
