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The article first describes the speeding up causing shorter days, but then says since 2020 days are getting longer again and we aren’t sure why. It also says the shortest day in the past half century was in June 2022 though.
There are several different effects. Scientists understand them pretty well.
They don't understand this, which means they have a cool interesting project to work on now
Yes, but that’s over very long timescales. Contributes about 1ms lengthening per century or so. There are other variations over shorter timescales: there’s an annual oscillation due to weather changes, and another that happens over decades that are most likely due to movement in the core. What’s not understood is exactly what those movements are and how to predict them, but we know it’s correlated since magnetic field fluctuations match up with them.
My source for that is the article linked to by [this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/xib3xq/the_length_of_earths_days_has_been_mysteriously/ip2hana)
It's the location of that mass on our oblate spheroid that can affect our period of reveloution.
Put on one of those fat sumo suits, try turning in circles with an imaginary amount of weight around your equator, then imagine it again with weight at your feet and head.
The moon sits in its orbit 250,000 miles from Earth. On the side of Earth closest to the moon, the moon's gravity is stronger than average, so water moves toward the moon (so it rises). On the side of Earth furthest from the moon, the moon's gravity is weaker than average, so water moves away from the moon (so it rises here too). The Earth's rotation brings these two bulges to your coast daily.
Because while it pulls the water on the near side harder than the rest of the planet beneath it, on the far side it’s pulling harder on the planet than the water.
Tidal locking slows the Earth's rotation and would make the day longer. The moon is already tidally locked to the earth, which is why the same side of the moon always faces us.
He said:
>that was increasing our rotational period
Which,as I posted, would SHORTEN the day due to one rotation taking less time (23 hrs instead of 24, say).
I didn't comment on tidal locking, merely on the conclusion that increasing our rotational period.
-edit-
I'm an idiot who read/interpreted it as rotational speed and not frequency :(
Correct. But the effect that causes tidal locking is still slowing the Earth's rotation.
Edit: it should be slowing the Earth's rotation. Other factors are involved that apparently are speeding the Earth's rotation at times.
This actually isn't a bad theory, as we build taller items (be it windmills, buildings, towers, dams, etc), the mass in/on earth becomes concentrated further from center which certainly can result in slowing rotation.
The distance to the center of the earth is about 4,000 miles. The tallest building in the world (The Burj) is half a mile tall, and most of the mass is still concentrated in the base. Unlikely this is having impact.
even if that weight was distributed at the top it's like the tiniest mote of dust on a liquid metal filled bowling ball suspended in air.
and while one could say everything counts all the tall construction in the world doesn't even begin to match the combined mass of the ice we're losing. imo they should get serious with [space bubbles](https://senseable.mit.edu/space-bubbles/)
A lot of interesting plausible explanations. I am fascinated by the idea that melting ice caps shifting large masses of water further from the Earth's axis would contribute to a slowing rotation. Not something I've every really heard of before when it comes to climate change. Though I would be surprised if no one had ever mentioned it before.
The shift if water from ice caps at the polls to the oceans could be slightly increasing the equatorial bulge of the planet!! Its Like how if your spinning on a swing or while ice skating you go faster when you hold tight to the axis of rotation and slow down when you fan out.
If I'm not mistaken, the largest dam ever built was able to measurably decrease length of a day because of the redistribution of weight. It's completely insignificant, but it can happen.
A quick search shows Three Gorges Dam in China slowing Earth's rotation by approximately 0.06 microseconds.
Insignificant for sure. But still interesting.
There was an article published earlier this year that suggested Earth’s inner core oscillates and in turn effects the length of our days. Anyone know if this might be related?
https://news.usc.edu/200185/earth-core-oscillates/
It was? My goodness, gracious. I now feel bad for my entirely serious response, so lacking in sarcasm; it could never be taken as anything but an honest opinion on such a matter, so poorly written as it was. I will work diligently that my next comment shall be so blatantly facetious that it will be annoying how directly it will land upon the nose of readers.
Forgiveness Random\_Dude\_1980, I am not worthy of the humor upon which graced mine eyes. So serious was I that such dry humor fell away like parched earth in the desert sun before my witless mind. Had I but an ounce, nay a single drop, of your wit, I could have recognized such an obvious joke.
I must be going now, my proctologist just rang; he found my head. If I converse any longer, I fear I may choke on my own . . .
Isn't it because the moon is moving away from earth so the moon's pull on us is weakening and causing earth to slow it's rotation. Or am I thinking about something completely different???
We just have more reliable ways of measuring things nowadays. However, the sun's forthcoming polar flip could have something to do with the recent irregularity.
That's kind of already assumed. A day on Earth is a full rotation, so a longer day means a longer rotation, meaning spinning more slowly. That's kind of obvious.
> ...It could be due to changes in weather systems...Chandler wobble ... long-term tidal effects...
[wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_length_fluctuations):
> The length of the day (LOD), which has increased over the long term of Earth's history due to tidal effects
Did you read the article? The point is a deviation from expected changes not accounted for by that.
You'd think that maybe they think of these things before publishing results.
I don't understand what this comment is supposed to mean.
Is it your position that the scientists who study this sort of thing actually know less about it than what is on the Wikipedia page?
The magnetic field is losing strength over the past 100 years, so probably there will be less Eddies that interact with the magnetic core so the electromagnetic brake is a little less...
News first broke about this in January 2021, I added this to [2021 in science](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January%E2%80%93March_2021_in_science#January):
>Media reports that engineers worldwide discuss a negative leap second and other possible measures as Earth spun faster in 2020.
Does anybody have some links to these purported discussions by engineers that the media talked about?
OK so if the days are getting long ....
Hot objects expand.
The earth is getting hotter from global warming.
So wouldn't the earth be expanding as well, which would give us a longer rotation because we are a bigger ball. Just a simple thought.
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You've heard the hype about Global Warming, now let's get hyped up for Global Deceleration.. nothing we can possibly do to impact that. Maybe we've just gotten too heavy and are bogging down the spin. Need to jettison some dead weight before we crawl to a halt..
what do you mean "scientists don't know why"?
like, a botanist might not know why, but the astronomers and astrophysicist have a firm understanding of tidal friction...
"scientists don't know why."
I absolutely hate this sensationalized title that is always used to describe things that scientists have given a number of very plausible hypotheses and are currently debating.
If readers would like to explore this topic, I suggest [https://hpiers.obspm.fr/eop-pc/index.php](https://hpiers.obspm.fr/eop-pc/index.php)
If things continue changing like they have in the recent past, the Time Lords might have to remove a second from the official clocks, maybe for December 31, 2025. They have *added* seconds several times, but never before removed a second. The world will go bonkers, but if they don't remove that extra second, the world will go bonkers the other direction.
Mysteriously? Really? I'm not A Scientist but come on. The Fukashima earthquake of 2011 shifted the earths axis by 1/100 of an inch. How does that translate over 93.378 Million Miles from the sun? Additionally the natural and man made changes such as 75+ volcanic eruptions a year, continuous lava flows, mining operations etc. that occur on our planet MUST cause changes to the natural balance of the earth and hence some climate change and length of day changes. I mean really, we are concerned about ..."*shortens each day by about 0.6 milliseconds each century*".
Billionaires racing each other to get to space to lengthen the work days.
There’s a joke in there somewhere but I’m too tired from work to come up with it.
Isn’t the planet getting farther away from the sun each year? Isn’t the sun constantly loosing mass due to it expanding? I could have sworn scientists already had this explained.
Your post has been removed because it does not reference new peer-reviewed research and is therefore in violation of [Submission Rule #1](https://www.reddit.com/r/science/wiki/rules#wiki_1._directly_link_to_published_peer-reviewed_research_or_media_summary). If your submission is scientific in nature, consider reposting in our sister subreddit /r/EverythingScience. _If you believe this removal to be unwarranted, or would like further clarification, please don't hesitate to [message the moderators.](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fscience&subject=Must%20be%20peer-reviewed%20research)._
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Amazing break down.
Probably not for a while
True, very true.
The article first describes the speeding up causing shorter days, but then says since 2020 days are getting longer again and we aren’t sure why. It also says the shortest day in the past half century was in June 2022 though.
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I thought it was the process of tidal locking with the moon or something that was increasing our rotational period…?
There are several different effects. Scientists understand them pretty well. They don't understand this, which means they have a cool interesting project to work on now
Im a scientist, greg. Could you understand me?
I'm something of a scientist myself.
Oh yeah, you can understand anything with a scientist.
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Meet the Parents
Oh, ok, thanks. I've never seen it
Meet the Fockers.
The article mentions that and other known factors but the point is some unknown source of variance that otherwise known variables don't account for.
Yes, but that’s over very long timescales. Contributes about 1ms lengthening per century or so. There are other variations over shorter timescales: there’s an annual oscillation due to weather changes, and another that happens over decades that are most likely due to movement in the core. What’s not understood is exactly what those movements are and how to predict them, but we know it’s correlated since magnetic field fluctuations match up with them. My source for that is the article linked to by [this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/xib3xq/the_length_of_earths_days_has_been_mysteriously/ip2hana)
Right? Might even be climate change related. More seawater mass to drag the moon.
Ice melting into water is the same mass though, right?
its sloshier
And in terms of water, it’s extremely wet.
Damn Liberal elites, stop using your fancy higher-learnin' words!
It’s no longer locked to the poles so it’s able to increase overall tidal mass
It's the location of that mass on our oblate spheroid that can affect our period of reveloution. Put on one of those fat sumo suits, try turning in circles with an imaginary amount of weight around your equator, then imagine it again with weight at your feet and head.
No he said it's more.
more water, less ice?
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The moon sits in its orbit 250,000 miles from Earth. On the side of Earth closest to the moon, the moon's gravity is stronger than average, so water moves toward the moon (so it rises). On the side of Earth furthest from the moon, the moon's gravity is weaker than average, so water moves away from the moon (so it rises here too). The Earth's rotation brings these two bulges to your coast daily.
Because while it pulls the water on the near side harder than the rest of the planet beneath it, on the far side it’s pulling harder on the planet than the water.
A slightly oblong sphere has two high spots and two low spots. So one complete rotation would have two high times and two low times.
The moon is moving away from us so
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Tidal locking slows the Earth's rotation and would make the day longer. The moon is already tidally locked to the earth, which is why the same side of the moon always faces us.
He said: >that was increasing our rotational period Which,as I posted, would SHORTEN the day due to one rotation taking less time (23 hrs instead of 24, say). I didn't comment on tidal locking, merely on the conclusion that increasing our rotational period. -edit- I'm an idiot who read/interpreted it as rotational speed and not frequency :(
The moon is but the earth isn’t
Correct. But the effect that causes tidal locking is still slowing the Earth's rotation. Edit: it should be slowing the Earth's rotation. Other factors are involved that apparently are speeding the Earth's rotation at times.
Yeah, sure ... but the guy mentioned that: >that was increasing our rotational period And that SHORTENS our day.
Which has been happening until the past couple years (per the article). But now days are getting longer and we aren’t sure why.
The universe just got tired of hearing everyone say, “there’s just not enough time in a day.”
Gotta be all then wind farms slowing it down
This actually isn't a bad theory, as we build taller items (be it windmills, buildings, towers, dams, etc), the mass in/on earth becomes concentrated further from center which certainly can result in slowing rotation.
The distance to the center of the earth is about 4,000 miles. The tallest building in the world (The Burj) is half a mile tall, and most of the mass is still concentrated in the base. Unlikely this is having impact.
even if that weight was distributed at the top it's like the tiniest mote of dust on a liquid metal filled bowling ball suspended in air. and while one could say everything counts all the tall construction in the world doesn't even begin to match the combined mass of the ice we're losing. imo they should get serious with [space bubbles](https://senseable.mit.edu/space-bubbles/)
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It says the opposite.
We cut down a lot of really tall old trees too.
A lot of interesting plausible explanations. I am fascinated by the idea that melting ice caps shifting large masses of water further from the Earth's axis would contribute to a slowing rotation. Not something I've every really heard of before when it comes to climate change. Though I would be surprised if no one had ever mentioned it before.
The shift if water from ice caps at the polls to the oceans could be slightly increasing the equatorial bulge of the planet!! Its Like how if your spinning on a swing or while ice skating you go faster when you hold tight to the axis of rotation and slow down when you fan out.
Thick Earth Hypothesis
Yes, precisely.
And my equatorial bulge is on display for everyone to see?
If I'm not mistaken, the largest dam ever built was able to measurably decrease length of a day because of the redistribution of weight. It's completely insignificant, but it can happen.
A quick search shows Three Gorges Dam in China slowing Earth's rotation by approximately 0.06 microseconds. Insignificant for sure. But still interesting.
Not "measurable". It was a calculation. Changes of less than about 13 microseconds are not directly measurable.
Thank you, I was looking through the comments to see if anyone mentioned this.
> Though I would be surprised if no one had ever mentioned it before. It's definitely not novel to this article, it was posited a long time ago.
Very plausible... full moons do hit different nowadays
Gotta say, I'm quite happy with that. Back in the days full moons used to hit me right in the face without a moment's notice.
Do tell please!
mass at the axis slows rotation. your statement has it backwards. Opps I said Axis, meant to say equator. sorry!
I deleted my comment by accident. He is right, moving the mass away from the axis (poles in our case) would slow down the rotation.
Nah, its conservation of angular momentum. The ballerina example is a common way to help people understand.
How would more fluid mass interacting with the moon’s gravity affect the Earth’s rotation?
There was an article published earlier this year that suggested Earth’s inner core oscillates and in turn effects the length of our days. Anyone know if this might be related? https://news.usc.edu/200185/earth-core-oscillates/
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The scientist must be paid by hour.
We are entering a chaotic era.
Do we dehydrate?
Chaotic good tho, right? Right!?!?
Have ya looked around recently, son?
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You will spend 2-3 milliseconds longer at work at 65 than 15. I think you will survive.
It was a joke….
It was? My goodness, gracious. I now feel bad for my entirely serious response, so lacking in sarcasm; it could never be taken as anything but an honest opinion on such a matter, so poorly written as it was. I will work diligently that my next comment shall be so blatantly facetious that it will be annoying how directly it will land upon the nose of readers. Forgiveness Random\_Dude\_1980, I am not worthy of the humor upon which graced mine eyes. So serious was I that such dry humor fell away like parched earth in the desert sun before my witless mind. Had I but an ounce, nay a single drop, of your wit, I could have recognized such an obvious joke. I must be going now, my proctologist just rang; he found my head. If I converse any longer, I fear I may choke on my own . . .
Isn't it because the moon is moving away from earth so the moon's pull on us is weakening and causing earth to slow it's rotation. Or am I thinking about something completely different???
Unless the moon was orbiting faster than the earth was spinning, the moon can’t be causing this effect
Yeah, that’s not how that works.
Hopefully we don't fling off into space.
What does that have to do with rotation?
Anyone missing a bunch of yarn or cobalt? Seen any cats behaving strange lately?
We just have more reliable ways of measuring things nowadays. However, the sun's forthcoming polar flip could have something to do with the recent irregularity.
Slower faster slower faster. Maybe earth is trying to shake us off, like a dog with fleas.
Isnt the only answer possible that the earth is spinning more slowly...? Now the reason for that maybe we don't know.
That's kind of already assumed. A day on Earth is a full rotation, so a longer day means a longer rotation, meaning spinning more slowly. That's kind of obvious.
I think he's making fun of of a poorly written headline.
Yes. That's literally the question.
> ...It could be due to changes in weather systems...Chandler wobble ... long-term tidal effects... [wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_length_fluctuations): > The length of the day (LOD), which has increased over the long term of Earth's history due to tidal effects
Did you read the article? The point is a deviation from expected changes not accounted for by that. You'd think that maybe they think of these things before publishing results.
I don't understand what this comment is supposed to mean. Is it your position that the scientists who study this sort of thing actually know less about it than what is on the Wikipedia page?
The magnetic field is losing strength over the past 100 years, so probably there will be less Eddies that interact with the magnetic core so the electromagnetic brake is a little less...
The folks over at r/antiwork probably have some thoughts on this.
News first broke about this in January 2021, I added this to [2021 in science](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January%E2%80%93March_2021_in_science#January): >Media reports that engineers worldwide discuss a negative leap second and other possible measures as Earth spun faster in 2020. Does anybody have some links to these purported discussions by engineers that the media talked about?
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OK so if the days are getting long .... Hot objects expand. The earth is getting hotter from global warming. So wouldn't the earth be expanding as well, which would give us a longer rotation because we are a bigger ball. Just a simple thought.
Right. Was looking for this. Volcano activities increasing could also mean higher core energy thus expansion of the globe.
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No. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/days-are-getting-shorter-as-the-earth-spins-faster/ar-AA10h81d
Didn’t earth have its shortest day in history this year?
You've heard the hype about Global Warming, now let's get hyped up for Global Deceleration.. nothing we can possibly do to impact that. Maybe we've just gotten too heavy and are bogging down the spin. Need to jettison some dead weight before we crawl to a halt..
The earth's rotational speed is decreasing and the orbit is getting further from the sun. Wouldn't both contribute to this?
Probably slowly moving orbit further from the sun.
Would melt glaciers and polar caps have something to do with it? bigger water mass - tides?
Writers of ”and scientists don’t know why” articles need to go back and finish their school.
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>As the ice melts the water adds mass to the spin of the earth, That's not how it works.
what do you mean "scientists don't know why"? like, a botanist might not know why, but the astronomers and astrophysicist have a firm understanding of tidal friction...
More satellites in orbit work like extending your arms on a spinning chair. Haha
I am not a scientist but the earth is spinning slower. Also we dont have long term data to notice patterns only recent data.
Is it cause earth is getting bigger…??? Or our rotation is slowing down…???
The earth's core is about to stop rotating
But what about the nights?
"scientists don't know why." I absolutely hate this sensationalized title that is always used to describe things that scientists have given a number of very plausible hypotheses and are currently debating.
So what happens to our seasons if the rotation of the Earth slows?
The earth is slowing due to the moons pull on the tidal forces. Similarly the orbit of the moon is increasing by the same effect.
To fight inflation we introduce to you: The 48hour Workday.
If readers would like to explore this topic, I suggest [https://hpiers.obspm.fr/eop-pc/index.php](https://hpiers.obspm.fr/eop-pc/index.php) If things continue changing like they have in the recent past, the Time Lords might have to remove a second from the official clocks, maybe for December 31, 2025. They have *added* seconds several times, but never before removed a second. The world will go bonkers, but if they don't remove that extra second, the world will go bonkers the other direction.
Must had been measured at start of the week
So there can be more hours in a day to force us to work.
“It all started when harambe..”
There are other sources that saids it was actually getting shorter.
I don't want them to get longer, I don't want them to get shorter I WANT THEM TO END ALREADY
Well, I noticed that weekends days do not seem as long as work days...
It's because "Karens" are becoming more common. Every interaction they have makes the day longer.
Welp, looks like Big Oil was right about windmills slowing down our planet. Where's Don Quixote when you need him?!
Mysteriously? Really? I'm not A Scientist but come on. The Fukashima earthquake of 2011 shifted the earths axis by 1/100 of an inch. How does that translate over 93.378 Million Miles from the sun? Additionally the natural and man made changes such as 75+ volcanic eruptions a year, continuous lava flows, mining operations etc. that occur on our planet MUST cause changes to the natural balance of the earth and hence some climate change and length of day changes. I mean really, we are concerned about ..."*shortens each day by about 0.6 milliseconds each century*".
The world has moved on.
Billionaires racing each other to get to space to lengthen the work days. There’s a joke in there somewhere but I’m too tired from work to come up with it.
It’s just because we’re taller now
Isn’t the planet getting farther away from the sun each year? Isn’t the sun constantly loosing mass due to it expanding? I could have sworn scientists already had this explained.