The extra second will happen as clocks strike midnight and a time of 23:59:60 will be recorded, delaying 2017 briefly. A leap second last occurred in June 2015 and now, this will be the 27th period it has happened.

The change is obligatory because standard time lags atomic clocks. The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) - in charge for the UK's national time scale - uses the atomic clock to run a stable and a continuous timetable. Along with other clocks that will be adjusted across the globe, it provides the world with its synchronized universal time.

NPL senior research scientist Peter Whibberley said: "Atomic clocks are more than a million times far better at keeping time than the revolution of the Earth, which varies unpredictably. "Leap seconds are needed to avoid civil time wandering away from Earth time. "Although the drift is quite small - taking around 1,000 years to collect a one-hour difference - if not modified it would eventually result in clocks displaying midday before sunrise."

The Leap Second Is Obligatory To Stay Accurately With Our Existing Timetable

Atomic clocks use infrared signals emitted in the change of electron energy stages to tell the time. The time shaped by the clocks is used in GPS location gadgets and is used to control the wave frequency of TV broadcasts. The International Earth Rotation along with Reference Systems Service in France records the Earth's rotation and declares the need for a leap second to correct any issue in time.

To keep Earth and all its time zones properly check, atomic clocks will be at a standstill for one second at 23:59 Coordinated Universal Time, on December 31 (that's 00:59 on January 1 in CET). This added second perhaps won't be noticed by too many people, but it's an important part of the course that makes sure that the dimension of time remains precise all over the world timetable.