23 59 facts
While investigating facts about 23 59, I found out little known, but curios details like:
Due to irregularities in Earth's rotation speed, clocks sometimes strike 23:59:60 to stay in sync with a day's real duration, essentially creating minutes with 61 seconds.
A leap second is added every few years due to Earth's irregular rate of rotation. The time is displayed as 23:59:60 and the next one will occur June 30, 2015.
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 9 of the best facts about 23 59 I managed to collect.
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The final minute of 2016 will be 61 seconds long, and 2017 will begin after 23:59:60.
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Due to the Leap Second the last second of 2016 will be 23:59:60 Saturday, 31 dec 2016 . Countdowns will have to start a second after to accommodate it.
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For a period of 2 hours, from 22:00 to 23:59 UTC-12, three different dates exist simultaneously on Earth thanks to the Line Islands which go by UTC+14
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A "Leap Second" will be added on December 31st at 23:59 (11:59 PM) to accommodate for Earth's varying rotation. This means 2016 will last one second longer than a standard Leap Year.
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Leap Second (30 June) one extra second inserted into the world's atomic clocks, reading a time of 23:59:60 before ticking back to 00:00:00. It is indicated by an additional bleep in the time signal at the end of some years.
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During a Leap Second the time is written as 23:59:60 (in UTC) and the Sun orbits the core of our galaxy at 1/1300 of the speed of light.