Our time is shaped by numerous spin-related events, such as the cyclic motion of the sun’s planets or shift workers switching between night and day shifts. Some of them occur every day, while others are more irregular and unpredictable.
Precession is one of the rotating events that occur more regularly. It is the Earth’s slow wobble on its axis of rotation. This wobble is similar to an oddly off-center rotating top. The variation in the rotational direction to fixed stars, also known as inertial space, has a cycle that lasts 25,771.5. This is also the reason why amusement parks like Ferris wheels and carousels must be constructed with a solid side-to-side bar called an axle. The Coriolis effect is a different moving event. It is a mysterious force that sways a moving body system, which affects its revolving motion on a climatic scale. This is the reason for a variety of weather patterns, including the alternating direction of cyclones that occur on the southern and upper hemispheres.
While most people know that our planet rotates on its axis every 24 hours However, many don’t know that the speed of this rotation fluctuates. The days can sometimes appear longer or shorter than they ought to be. This is why the atomic clocks which maintain a standard time have to be adjusted periodically. This kind of change is referred to a leap second, and this article will discuss how it happens and the significance it has to our everyday lives.