Earth changes its spin, baffles scientists
Found on CNN on Thursday, 01 January 2004
BOULDER, Colorado (AP) -- In a phenomenon that has scientists puzzled, the Earth is right on schedule for a fifth straight year.
At the National Institute for Science and Technology in Boulder, spokesman Fred McGehan said most scientists agree the Earth's orbit around the sun has been gradually slowing for millennia. But he said they don't have a good explanation for why it's suddenly on schedule.
The leap second was an unexpected consequence of the 1955 invention of the atomic clock, which use the electromagnetic radiation emanated by Cesium atoms to measure time. It is extremely reliable.
If money makes the world go around, do poorer countries spin slower? Perhaps our earth isn't as valueable as it has been before. Things like this make scientists go crazy...