Leap seconds cause chaos for computers — so Meta wants to get rid of them

Perception Las Vegas And “Leonardo: The Universal Man” Media Preview — Photo by Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images

Since 1972 there have been 27 leap seconds: additional seconds added to the world’s common clock — Coordinated Universal Time or UTC — to account for changes in the Earth’s rate of rotation. Historically, our concept of time is defined as a fraction of the length of the solar day, but as the Earth’s rate of spin is somewhat irregular (slowing and speeding based on various factors) it means solar time and universal time tend to drift apart. So, in order to compensate, we add leap seconds. And this really confuses computers.

I mean, just imagine you’re a computer. You have a very clear sense of time. You know that there are 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes in an hour, and 60 seconds in a minute: all neat and tidy. Then, on some random day as...

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