Scientists and officials from around the world have voted to stop adding “leap seconds” to the world’s clocks.
The decision was made on 15 October 2026 at the General Conference on Weights and Measures, a meeting in Versailles, France, where countries agree on how to measure things like time and distance.
The world’s official time is kept by super-accurate atomic clocks. But Earth doesn’t spin at a perfectly steady speed, so every now and then the clocks and the planet drift slightly out of step.
To fix this, an extra second, called a leap second, has sometimes been added to the clock. Since 1972, 27 leap seconds have been added, with the last one on 31 December 2016.
But leap seconds can cause problems for computers, phones and other technology that rely on exact time. Experts were also worried that a second might soon need to be taken away, which has never been done before.
From 20 May 2027, there will be no more leap seconds. Instead, the clocks and Earth’s spin will be allowed to drift apart by up to an hour before anything is changed, which may not happen for hundreds of years.
“After 30 years of debates, we are ready,” said Noël Dimarcq, a senior French scientist who leads an international committee on time.
For most of us, the change won’t make any noticeable difference to everyday life.
SMART Prep | Quick Question 
