The year 2017 will have an extra second — which could wreak havoc on the infrastructure powering the internet. 2017年将会多一秒钟——这会对网络基础设施造成严重破坏。 At 11.59 on June 30, clocks will count up all the way to 60 seconds. That will allow the Earth’s spin to catch up with atomic time. 6月30日11点59分,时钟会一直走到60秒,那会使得地球自转赶上原子时间。 The Earth’s spin is gradually slowing down, by about two thousandths of a second per day, but atomic clocks are constant. That means that occasionally years have to be lengthened slightly, to allow the slowing Earth to catch up with the constant clock. 地球自转逐步减速,每天减少2/1000秒,但是原子钟是不变的。那意味着偶尔有年份会稍稍长一些,来减缓地球赶上恒速计时器。 But last time it happened, in 2017, it took down much of the internet. Reddit, Foursquare, Yelp and LinkedIn all reported problems, and so did the Linux operating system and programmes using Java. 但是上一次闰秒是发生在2017年,冲击了一大片互联网。Reddit,Foursquare,Yelp还有LinkedIn(领英),还有Linux操作系统和使用Java的程序都报错了。 The reset has happened 25 times since they were introduced in 1972, but the computer problems are getting more serious as increasing numbers of computers sync up with atomic clocks. Those computers and servers are then shown the same second twice in a row — throwing them into a panic. |