Our Days just got shorter

[Fuddley]

I heard on the ABC today that the earthquake in Chile has caused the earths axis to be shifted by 8cm, this in turn has caused us to be spinning slightly faster, giving us shorter day (less time for caching ). I also assume that we will need to be looking for caches 8cm from the actual GZ from now on.

[GhostGums]

Does this mean we will live longer?

[Ozibags]

Another good reason for Queensland to go to Daylight Savings.

[setsujoku]

If you are quick enough to notice 1.26 microseconds, then yes the day is shorter, but for 99.99999% of people I would say that life continues on as normal.

[Echo]

So that it why I was finding it hard to walk in a straight line last night...

[Captain Terror]

If you are quick enough to notice 1.26 microseconds, then yes the day is shorter, but for 99.99999% of people I would say that life continues on as normal.

1.26 microseconds. What if I needed that 1.26 microseconds each day!?!?!? Silly Chile. Way to make the days shorter

Wheres that sarcasm font when you need one?

[stringy]

....... So....... I guess I won't make it to 40

[caughtatwork]

Yeah, you'll just be 39.9999999999999999999999999965423

[Kerry]

Some of the journo misquotes are at least good for a laugh. Analysis has shown a good snow storm has more affect than this earthquake yet I suppose a good snow storm doesn't have a headline grabber and not as dramatic as an Earthquake?

[ianc]

The period of the earth rotation varies over about a 2ms range during a year. Along with that are longer term variations. A change in the order of 1uS is looking in the noise. In fact the JPL researcher inverviewed on the ABC said that he was hoping to be able to measure the change. The values that were given were based on models from the measured effect of the earthquake, not the real changes in rotational period or axis. He also said that for a previous quake with similar modeled effects they HADNT been able to actually confirm the effects by measurement.
For those interested in variation of the earths rotational period, and lets face it, who isn't - heres a chart of variation over 40 years.

http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/gif/lod.png

K0mpass

[MtnLioness]

Uh.........
My head hurts.


Does that mean we are gradually getting slower?
My head still hurts

[Kerry]

Uh.........
My head hurts.


Does that mean we are gradually getting slower?
My head still hurts

Getting slower? Yes and is what triggers leap seconds. Since Jan 5/6 1980 currently 15 seconds slower.

[ianc]

Uh.........
My head hurts.


Does that mean we are gradually getting slower?
My head still hurts

Getting slower? Yes and is what triggers leap seconds. Since Jan 5/6 1980 currently 15 seconds slower.

And miraculously veering back onto a sightly geocaching related topic.... Interestingly enough GPS time does not have leap seconds, so GPS epoch time is now 15 seconds ahead of UTC. I believe the current value of the difference between the two is in the GPS data stream, so your receiver works in GPS time, but applies the offset when displaying time to the user, probably applying another offset to get the local timezone as well.
K0mpass

[The Spindoctors]

On average the Earth is slowing due to the tidal pull of the Moon. Geological records show that the Earth's rotation was once every 18 hours. As a consequence of the Moon is also moving slowly away from the Earth.

Strangely, even the weather can affect the Earth's rotation.

http://www.livescience.com/environment/ ... bbles.html

Speaking with my science journo hat on, the blip from two weeks ago while interesting, is just a blip in time.