If the earth got knocked off its axis and we lost 1 milsecond off each day then...?

Question

doesn't that mean we now have 23 hrs and 59 minutes and some odd seconds in a day and not 24 hours now?

Answer 1

Well, sort of.



Yes, the Earth's rotation was slightly slowed. However, it wasn't 24 hours to begin with. It was actually already only about 23 hours and 56 minutes.



Furthermore, the moon (via the tides) acts like a brake on the earth's rotation, slowing us by 2.3 ms / day / century, so in the grand scheme of things, the slowing from the earthquake is trivial.

Answer 2

Every major earthquake affects our axis. This time, I've heard the number "3 inches" quoted, and shortening our day by a microsecond or so. When the Haiti earthquake went off, it had also knocked us around, but by much less. However, in 2004, the Sumatra quake was powerful enough to knock us around 4-5 inches, which had the opposite effect of Chile -- it lengthened our day by a microsecond or two. Earth isn't perfect, and that's why you'll hear geologists and other types refer to Earth's "wobble." Just like a child's top toy (you know, the spinning thing) that you can tap with your finger -- it'll knock around a little bit, and you flick it a second time and it will return to normal, etc. It's just what happens, and it's absolutely natural. I saw a person today terrified that our days were going to get shorter and shorter until there were no days. That physically can't happen. A little shake and wobble here and there is totally normal. I don't know if you're worrying about it, or are just interested, but just to cover everything -- honestly, don't worry about it, it's totally normal.

Answer 3

The Yahoo article was wrong. It wasn't a millisecond but a microsecond, that's to say one millionth of a second.

The Earth is rotating slightly more slowly than it was 200 years ago (on which the length of the second is based), so the average day is about 86,400.001 seconds. The extra .001 seconds add up to one second about every 3 years, so we need a leap second roughly that often, when we stop out clocks to let the Earth 'catch up'.

The one microsecond lost off each day will mean the clocks need to be adjusted by one second every 3,000 years - not a big problem.

Answer 4

No. The day is / was 23hrs & 56 minutes & some seconds. so you can take the 1.6 microseconds off that, if you can really be bothered. ..... Now I've GOT to say "I Told You So!".... I have been saying for ages that around this time, the Earth WOULD get knocked off it's Axis, & now it HAS! ..... I did not say how much it Would be, just that it WOULD Happen & now it HAS!! ... So Nyeeer!:-P