From: utzoo!decvax!cca!z
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards
Title: Re: length of day
Article-I.D.: cca.3362
Posted: Fri Nov  5 09:01:27 1982
Received: Sat Nov  6 01:26:15 1982

	From decvax!harpo!eagle!mhuxt!hstrop Thu Nov  4 18:45:52 1982
	Subject: length of day
	Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards

	For those people who couldn't live without this info:

	one day(earth rotation) = 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds

	Nothing for the guy on the street to worry about, but now
	you know why the days seem shorter than when you were a kid.

How could this be true?  If this were so, after about 100 days
everybody's clock would be six hours off, the sun would be rising at
midnight, etc.

Actually, the earth's rotation is somewhat variable, but it's so close
to 24 hours that over the period of a year, clocks are off by only a
second or two.  To compensate for this, a "leap second" is added or
subtracted at the end of June and the end of December, when necessary.