Our time is shaped different ways by spinning events whether it’s the Earth rotating around the Sun, or the shift workers changing between the evenings and days. 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 revolves all day long around the Sun. It is less known that the speed at which Earth rotates can change and make the day appear shorter or longer than it actually is. This variation is why the atomic clocks that maintain standardized time must be regularly adjusted by adding or subtracting seconds. This change is known as a leap second.

One of the more frequent rotational events is precession which is the cyclical wobble that occurs on the Earth’s axis, much like a spinny, slightly off-center spinning toy top. This axial shift with respect to fixed stars (inertial spaces) has the duration of 25,771.5. It is responsible for a variety of weather patterns, such as the alternating directions between cyclones in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

Scientists have also observed the speed at that the Earth rotates slows down over long periods of time, leading to solar days to become gradually longer. That’s why on June 29, the world added an extra second to atomic clocks in order that they would be more in sync with the real-world rotation of our planet. Although the addition of one second may seem minor but it can have significant implications for businesses https://northcentralrotary.org/2019/10/13/an-international-organization who rely on changing schedules. For multinational companies with a global workforce, managing changing call schedules by fumbling around spreadsheets or static wiki pages can be costly in terms of reputation and revenue. This is the reason why companies are using on-call rotation software to decrease interruptions in service and ensure that transfer coverage is covered and provide transparency for employees.