Clock stops on scrapping leap seconds

Technology

Clock stops on scrapping leap seconds

Close

Delegates from some 100 countries failed to agree whether to call time on leap seconds.

20 January,2012 10:26 am

Time experts were deadlocked on Thursday over whether to scrap leap seconds which are occasionally added to clocks to stop them running ahead of the sun.Delegates from some 100 countries failed to agree whether to call time on leap seconds, which were introduced in 1972 to help real time - measured by the earths rotation on its axis and around the sun - catch up with atomic time.