Rotating Events in Our Time
The world spinning around the Sun or shift workers who switch between nights and days our lives are determined by a variety of spinning events. Some of these occur every day, while others are more unpredictable and less predictable.
For instance, the majority of people are aware that the Earth revolves around the Sun throughout the day. It is less well-known that the speed at which Earth rotates can fluctuate and make the day appear shorter or longer than it should. This is the reason that atomic clocks that keep a standard time must be regularly adjusted by adding or subtracting seconds. This is referred to as a leap second.
Precession is a typical rotational event. It is the oscillation of the Earth’s axis, which is similar to the spinning top of a toy that is a little off-center. The axial shift in relation to fixed stars (inertial space) is a time period of 25,771.5 years, and is responsible for various weather patterns, including the shifting direction of cyclones across the Northern and Southern hemispheres.
Scientists have also observed that the speed of Earth rotation slows over time, causing solar day to become longer. That’s why, on June 29, the world added the leap second to atomic clocks, so that they could better align with the actual Earth’s rotation. While one second may seem insignificant, it has significant implications for businesses who rely on changing schedules. For instance multinational companies that depend on a global workforce, fumbling through static spreadsheets and wiki pages to manage the changing schedules of calls can be costly in terms of revenue and reputation. This is the reason why more companies are turning to on-call rotation software to decrease interruptions in service and to manage the transfer coverage and offer transparency to employees.
