Is the Earth spinning really spinning faster today?

Author: || Published: 1/13/2021 at 12:38pm

A story that is making the rounds – pun intended – on social media is a report that the Earth is “spinning out of control! Literally!” Except it is not.

And I know “correcting information” never gets the same traction as the misleading information, but here we go….

Science! Math! Physics!

Is the Earth spinning faster than it was? Yes, according to the latest data. But this isn’t really news. Yes, a 2015 study adds evidence to the hypothesis that the Earth is spinning faster. And in July of 2020 there was no ‘leap second’ added to time. However, math always knew that the earth was never spinning at a constant velocity to start. So, this fluctuation isn’t unexpected.

Want to know more about leap days and time keeping on earth? Check this out

Back in 2013, Neil DeGrasse Tyson interviewed Frank Reed on StarTalk Radio and he discussed how the angular momentum of the earth would change with the redistribution of mass on Earth’s surface. As the glacier melted, on hypothesis suggested that it would actually change the Earth’s rotational velocity as it ‘rebounded’ to a rounder shape.

Courtesy: Pintrest

You can think of it like a figure skater going from some odd shape to one that is a little more symmetrical. And as the skater pulls their arms in, they spin faster. That isn’t magic, it isn’t special. It’s math. And it is really cool.

In fact, in that same interview mentioned above, it was discussed that the Earth’s Jet Stream, the river of air that moves all of our big storms systems around the globe also slows down (and speeds up) the Earth’s rotational velocity though the Conservation of Angular Momentum.

So, Earth is not a great time-keeping device.

Big deal, though, right?

But who cares, right? Leap-=second forward, leap-second back… what does that even mean?

Well, it means a lot, actually. Especially for the Internet which is based on everyone being on the same time. I ran into an example of this at wDAM recently when one of our computers didn’t have the same time as the rest of the computers. It was unable to “speak” to anything else on the network.

So if the earth is spinning faster and the time on earth is 1-second faster, but we are all 1-second faster, why does that matter?

Satellites!

They are in orbit and use Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity that their time is ticking differently than the time on Earth due to the velocity. The satellites pre-correct for the time difference when they are talking to stuff down here (think GPS’ing your way to a friends house). And if our time on Earth is different than that assumed pre-corrected time, the satellite becomes inoperative.

Not great. Because we all rely on satellites to do a ton of stuff. From stuff you use every day like GPS, to stuff scientists use every day like weather monitoring, to stuff normal people never use but really need like military intelligence. You get the idea.

So the leap seconds do matter.

So what is the plan?

The world’s time-keepers may have to introduce a negative leap second at some point to line us all back up with where we should be. Or we will have to invent a new way to keep time.

Only time – more puns intended – will tell.


Author of the article:


Nick Lilja

Nick is former television meteorologist with stints in Amarillo and Hattiesburg. During his time in Hattiesburg, he was also an adjunct professor at the University of Southern Mississippi. He is a graduate of both Oregon State and Syracuse University that now calls Houston home. Now that he is retired from TV, he maintains this blog in his spare time.