A Matter of Degrees, Pt. 2

[Henry Kingman]

> From: Scott Badger 
> I seem to remember reading somewhere (in a book by Stephen Gould I
> think) that the earth's rotation is, and has been, slowing down...

I was a ham op as a child -- nothing else to do in the Nevada desert with
the nearest neighbor miles down the dirt road -- and I used to listen to
WWV for kicks sometimes. This is the shortwave station which broadcasts the
time 24x7 at 2.5, 5, 10, 15 and 20  MHz (if I recall). The clock on which
it is based is an atomic variety housed at Greenwich (tenuous P content
here?), and the hour given is always Greenwich Mean Time. Anyway, they
always recalibrate the  Greenwich clock on New Year's Eve, and for many
years listening to the shift between the beeps was among the biggest hoots
of my partying career. Of course, it would happen at like, 7 pm my time, so
I still didn't have an excuse to stay up late...

I remember one year (it must have been '79 or '80) when they cut out a
whole quarter second... ! It was really cool!

But shifts of that magnitude are rare indeed -- I think a passing asteroid
may have affected the earth's orbit or something...? The change is usually
pretty much indistinguishable.