What to Do With the Free Bonus Second We're All Getting This Weekend
Atomic Clock NISTSuggestions for enjoying your leap second The Earth's rotation doesn't line up perfectly with our calculation of it, so to keep things consistent, we have to adjust. That's why this weekend will have a leap second. This Saturday, just before midnight Greenwich Mean Time, clocks will count to 60 seconds, instead of 59. How should you spend that free, unexpected single second? Here are nine ideas. 1. A Japanese computer can sort you out from 36 million other faces in one second. Play and lose an absurdly huge game of hide-and-seek in that time. 2. An electromagnetic pulse lets you cut through a hunk of steel in 200 milliseconds. Do it fives times and get that shed you've been meaning to build taken care of. 3. A high-res, high-speed 3-D printer can make five meters of whatever you want in one second. Unwind by using the technique to start making a...