IT'S TIME

LEAP SECOND
Four or five million years ago, a day lasted only 22 hours. The lengthening of the day is due to the very gradual slowing down of the Earth's rotation on its axis. Since the introduction of the "coordinated universal time" as the world's standard form of time measurement in 1972, one "leap second" has been added onto the last second of each year to make up for the planet's deceleration.

THE TIME IT TAKES
The durations, in seconds, of certain events: bee's wing beat (0.03); human heartbeat(1); time it takes for sunlight to reach the earth (492); the earth rotates on its axis (86,164.1); the earth completes an orbit around the sun (31,557,600).

DO YOU KNOW THAT...

• The duration for Pluto to go around the sun is equivalent to 248 earth years.
• "Fortnight" is a contraction of "fourteen nights." In the US "two weeks" is more commonly used.
• A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.
• Any month that starts on a Sunday will have a Friday the 13th in it.
• Easter is the first Sunday after the first Fool Moon after March 21
• Flying from London to New York by Concord, due to the time zones crossed, you can arrive 2 hours before you leave.
• If the sun stopped shinning suddenly, it would take eight minutes for people on earth to be aware of the fact.
• In 1947, heavy snow blanketed the Northeast, burying New York City under 25.8 inches of snow in 16 hours; the severe weather was blamed for some 80 deaths.
• Light travels at the rate of 186,200 mile a second.
• More than 99.9% of all the animal species that have ever lived on earth were extinct before the coming of man.
• The greatest snowfall ever in a single storm was 189 inches at the Mount Shasta Ski Bowl in February, 1959.
• The Gregorian calendar was introduced by Pope Gregory in 1582 AD, and was adopted by Great Britain and the English colonies in 1752.
• The monastic hours are matins, lauds, prime, tierce, sext, nones, vespers and compline.
• The wristwatch was invented in 1904 by Louis Cartier.