If it’s the Earth rotating around the Sun or shift workers switching between days and nights our lives are affected by a myriad of events. Some of these happen every day and some are more unpredictable and less predictable.

For instance, many people are aware that the Earth revolves around the Sun every day. It is less known that the speed at which Earth rotates can change and make a day seem longer or shorter than it actually is. This is the reason why nuclear clocks which maintain a standard time must be periodically adjusted by adding or subtracting seconds. This change is known as leap seconds.

One of the most frequent periodic events that rotate is precession, which is the cyclical movement of the Earth’s axis for rotation which is similar to a slightly off-center spinning toy top. The axial shift in relation to fixed stars (inertial space) has a period of 25,771.5 years and is responsible for a variety of weather conditions patterns, such as the changing direction of cyclones in the Northern and Southern hemispheres.

Scientists have also observed that the speed of Earth is slowing over time, causing solar day to get longer. This is why, on June 29th the world added one second leap to atomic clocks, so that they could be more in line with the actual earth’s rotation. Although the addition of a second may seem minor https://northcentralrotary.org/2019/10/13/an-international-organization however, it has significant implications for businesses that depend on changing schedules. For multinational companies with a global workforce managing shifty call schedules by fumbling with spreadsheets or static wiki pages can be costly in terms of revenue and reputation. This is why companies are switching to on-call software to decrease interruptions in service and to manage the transfer coverage and offer transparency to employees.