The Essence of Time

I no longer wear a watch.  The idea of not always knowing what "time" it is is a little disconcerting at first - but then, after a while - it becomes quite liberating. And it's funny to recall how many times I looked at my blank wrist wondering what "time" it was - and then realizing - hey - no watch!  I've been  sans watch for about a year now - and I can tell you that I now eat when I am hungry and sleep when I am tired - and I realize this may not be practical for those whose lives are based upon tight schedules. And that's what got me to thinking about TIME and how we relate to the concept or the essence of time.

We are slaves to our clocks. They tell us when to get up, when to eat, when to get to work - when to drive to the airport, post office, grocery store etc.  In short - we have little choice in our carefully constructed world but to follow our watches.  For the vast majority of us - time can sometimes be our friend and sometimes our enemy, depending upon how we use it or abuse it.  And if our watches are a few seconds off - well - not a big deal. However - for the scientific community - it's vital that clocks be accurately synchronized. Broadcasters also rely on time synchronization. And just HOW is all that accomplished? 

Well, let's just say that there are people and organizations (The International Earth Rotation and Reference System Service -IERS) whose job it is to make sure that all the atomic clocks in the world are all synchronized - down to the second. And understand that a second - which comes and goes so quickly - IS the base unit for modern time keeping. In a nutshell - atomic clocks the world over keep a steady pace - BUT the Earth manages to slow a little as it rotates over time - so therefore - corrections in the world's clocks are necessary and vital - else over a matter of time - give or take a few thousand years - 12 Noon would fall at 12 midnight. (It's more like every 500 days one second is lost.)

And so we come to the crux of this post - this December - just before the New Year - a leap second will need to be added to all the atomic clocks to keep our clocks synchronized with the rotation of the Earth. The time is inserted at the same time all over the world - but because time zones are different - each regional time zone will add the second at a specific time.  

For those of you who have felt that you just don't have any time left - you actually are getting an extra second to play around with. Enjoy it. 

If you felt this was a waste of your time - let me know. Maybe I can make it up to you in a few thousand years.