The Mysterious Leap Second

Leap Day's got nothing on the Leap SECOND! Hank explains why a second is being added to 2012 and why some are upset about it.

[MultiPureEnergy]

2 things,
1. Us mobile YouTube users need links in the description because annotations don't seem to work
2. The timekeepers are like congress

[TheRawrnstuff]

I spent my extra second on a vacation. Man, did I need that.

[Piarou]

WOW!!! This video has been linked to in a "NOS op 3" (a national news site in The Netherlands) article. I was so amazed to see your (Hank's) face on my go-to-news-site. :D

[Ragnarockalypse]

Mysterious Leap Second. Sounds like a Fusion Jazz cover of Perpetual Black Second.

[crazyforcodelyoko]

I want to know the story behind that Jesus-Lightsaber shirt. :)

[hankschannel]

@SenseiOfPower The problem is that whatever percentage we used would be wrong in a few years because the earth is slowing down. We could make the length of a second constantly change, but that would be a nightmare for GPS satellites and rocket scientists.

[tygrahof]

Wow! An extra second! I'm 'gonna...oops, there it goes.

[joshtripple]

scishow, i noticed your videos are rather low watched, but i spent my entire sunday watching almost all of them. you have a seriously good show, i look forward to you guys getting a shit ton of subscribers soon as hell.

[rikin]

The funny thing is, for some reason, my dad keeps the clock 20 minutes ahead!?!?!?!

[silversyntax]

i have learned about scishow after watching other science channels that made youtube suggested this channel. That's about 3 days ago, and since then, all i am doing is watching these videos.

[Arthur]

I love you Hank, for being funny, for being awesome, and for always making me smile.

[TheGunsmith]

so in 2012 i had an extra second to fart...Yay!

[TheHumanSuitcase]

This day has officially been one of the best in my life, and it just got better.

[LMacNeill]

A whole EXTRA SECOND to watch more SciShow videos! Yay!! :-)

[haynerbass]

I LOVE the fact that you said "Yet". Nice.

[owlenthusiast]

This is so crazy; I never knew that this existed. Thanks for keeping me informed, Hank.

[guysumpthin]

How would it not slow down? Is has never accelerated since science has kept notes . Because the whirlpool in the drain would change direction, been slowing down since whatever spun it, 27 seconds added to clock in 38 years, averages to approximately 3/4 of a sec per year of slowing rotation

[bernardoherrera]

Hey young you! It's 2021and me here watching your good videos !

[warywolfen]

The length of an "official" second is how long a second was, on Jan. 1, 1901. Later, this was converted to the mentioned number of oscillations of an excited Cs atom.

[KrisKross]

The year 2012 gave me the magical gift of an extra second, and I spent that second on watching this second well spent!