'So, once things move around, the angular velocity of the earth can vary.' Every atom on the planet contributes to the momentum of the earth's angular velocity based on the distance to the rotation axis of the earth,' Obleukhov and Byagowi told CBS News. 'It is all about the law of conservation of momentum that applies to our planet Earth. The pair believes one of many contributing factors to Earth's faster spin could be the constant melting and refreezing of ice caps on the world's tallest mountains. 'In any case, every leap second is a major source of pain for people who manage hardware infrastructures.' 'The impact of a negative leap second has never been tested on a large scale it could have a devastating effect on the software relying on timers or schedulers,' they write. While positive leap seconds could cause a time jump, resulting in IT programs crashing or even data being corrupted, a negative leap second would be worse, they argue.
