Time and tide, it is said, wait for no man or woman for that matter.

In Endumeni it is said that time slows down and everything is a little less pacier than in the cities….. the traffic is less, the queues at are shorter….. but tonight (also the day when Venus and Jupiter will virtually kiss in the night sky) we are going to gain a whole extra second….it is Leap Second day…

A Leap Second you say?
Well, actually they’re actually quite common.

A Leap Second has been occurring at a rate of about one a year since 1972 – though in the last few years they’ve become a little less common.

What are they?
Essentially it means the clocks will have an extra second. At 11.59pm and 59 seconds clocks will have an added second and will go to 11.59.60.

Why does that happen?
Put (very) basically, the earth’s rotation is gradually slowing down, and Leap Seconds are our way of ensuring that our method of measuring time keeps pace with that.

Before the invention of super-accurate atomic clocks, time was based on the Earth’s rotation, one complete turn taking 24 hours.

Now a plethora of time-sensitive systems, including computer programmes and financial markets, rely on the precise ticking of atomic clocks that measure the energy transitions of atoms.

The problem is that due to the moon’s gravity the Earth is slowing down, and not in a regular way.

So every now and then a leap second is added to allow astronomical time to catch up with atomic time.

It is similar to the introduction of leap years keep our calendars lined up with the Earth’s orbit around the Sun.

So clocks are a better judge of time than the Earth?
Absolutely. Atomic time is extremely regular, whereas the Earth’s rotation – not so much.

Is it likely to cause us any problems?
Depends on who you ask really. Last time this occurred in 2012 more than 400 Qantas flights were delayed as staff were forced to switch to manual check-ins.

It also temporarily disrupted a number of high-profile websites including Mozilla, Reddit, Gawker, LinkedIn, FourSquare and Yelp.

Some experts suggest that if systems have not been fixed to account for the problem they’ll hit again.

Some US financial exchanges are actually planning to avoid the problems by closing either early or late.

Can’t computers account for such things?
You’d think. But computers are programmed to have 60 seconds in a minute and they don’t take kindly to any variation in this.

If a computer hasn’t been told to account for the extra second through the network time protocol they might end up getting a bit flummoxed.

There’s a possibility that if you decide to send an email exactly when the Leap Second is occurring it might just disappear.

Anyway, it’s most likely that any problems encountered will be minor.

So who actually adds the second?
Leap seconds were first introduced in 1972, by which time atomic clocks and astronomical clocks were already out of kilter by 10 seconds.

That year, scientists had to add 10 seconds to the world’s astronomical clocks in one go. The impact then in the pre-internet age was nothing like as great as it would have been today.

So, nothing to worry about then?
Pretty much. Enjoy the extra second. Use it wisely.