It’s the world spinning around the Sun or shift workers switching between night and day our lives are formed by a myriad of rotating events. Some of these events occur every day, while others are more unpredictable and more irregular.
Most people are aware of the fact that the Earth rotates 24 hours a day around the Sun. It’s not as well known that the speed of rotation can vary, making a day seem shorter or longer than it actually is. This is the reason why atomic clocks that keep a standard time must be regularly adjusted by adding or subtracting seconds. This change is known as leap seconds.
One of the most regular occurring events in the world of rotation is precession which is the cyclical wobble of the Earth’s axis of https://northcentralrotary.org/2021/07/13/generated-post-2/ motion, much like a spinny, slightly off-center spinning toy top. This axial shift in relation to fixed stars (inertial spaces) has an estimated duration of 25,771.5. It is responsible for a myriad of weather patterns for example, the alternating direction between cyclones in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
Scientists have also noticed that the speed of Earth rotation slows over time, which causes solar days to get longer. On June 29th, the world added an additional leap second to the atomic clocks in order to better align them with the axis of the Earth. While the addition of one second may seem minor but it can have significant implications for businesses that depend on changing schedules and rotating times. For multinational businesses with a global workforce managing shifty call schedules by fumbling around static wiki pages or spreadsheets can be costly in terms of reputation and revenue. This is why companies are turning to software for on-call rotation to cut down on service interruptions and ensure that transfer coverage is covered and ensure transparency for employees.