# Better recalibrate your atomic clock. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 9, 2010, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-recalibrate-your-atomic-clock/531909 "2010-03-09T21:47:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-recalibrate-your-atomic-clock/531909/1 "2010-03-09T21:47:16Z")
I’m not sure why, but for some reason I found this very cool. I need to think of ways to make up for the lost Microsecond though, I hate to think of all the lost productivity this will add up to, I may be cheated out of 1/20th of a breath before I die, that is unacceptable. > **[Chile quake moves city more than 10 feet - CNN.com](https://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/03/09/chile.earth.shifts/index.html?hpt=T2)** > > The magnitude-8.8 earthquake that rocked the west coast of Chile last month was violent enough to move the city of Concepcion at least 10 feet to the west and the capital, Santiago, about 11 inches to the west-southwest, researchers said. > [@](#): > > NASA scientists have also credited the quake with shifting the Earth’s axis enough to create shorter days. The change is negligible, but still worth noting: Each day should be 1.26 microseconds shorter, according to preliminary calculations. A microsecond is one-millionth of a second. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-recalibrate-your-atomic-clock/531909/2 "2010-03-09T21:50:13Z")
Between that and going on daylight saving time next week, I’m going to be losing sleep. I’ll be like a walking zombie. And you know what that signifies… ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-recalibrate-your-atomic-clock/531909/3 "2010-03-09T22:07:42Z")
> [@wolfman](#): > > I may be cheated out of 1/20th of a breath before I die, that is unacceptable. _Au contraire_, my dear chap! If the earth’s rotation has changed, and each day has become 1.26 microseconds shorter, that doesn’t mean that your biological clock has changed by the same amount. So you will be living **longer**! Instead of living something like 29200 days (approx. 80 years), you will be living 29200 days + 0.2 seconds (assuming you live approx. 40 years+ after the earthquake). ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-recalibrate-your-atomic-clock/531909/4 "2010-03-09T22:11:10Z")
Isn’t the rotation of the Earth slowing due to friction with the moon? How many years did the Earth just gain before becoming tidally locked with the moon? ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-recalibrate-your-atomic-clock/531909/5 "2010-03-10T13:53:46Z")
> [@Arnold\_Winkelried](#): > > _Au contraire_, my dear chap! If the earth’s rotation has changed, and each day has become 1.26 microseconds shorter, that doesn’t mean that your biological clock has changed by the same amount. So you will be living **longer**! Instead of living something like 29200 days (approx. 80 years), you will be living 29200 days + 0.2 seconds (assuming you live approx. 40 years+ after the earthquake). That’s going to totally fuck up Social Security. ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-recalibrate-your-atomic-clock/531909/6 "2010-03-10T14:50:00Z")
> [@Arnold\_Winkelried](#): > > So you will be living **longer**! Which raises the vexing question of how best to use this extra time. On the one hand it’s hard to think of something useful to do with it, but on the other hand one wouldn’t want to just… _waste_ it. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-recalibrate-your-atomic-clock/531909/7 "2010-03-10T15:49:54Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Between that and going on daylight saving time next week, I’m going to be losing sleep. I’ll be like a walking zombie. > > And you know what that signifies… Point-of-order: Zombie jokes belong in threads pertaining to the Haiti earthquake. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-recalibrate-your-atomic-clock/531909/8 "2010-03-10T18:58:47Z")
> [@Arnold\_Winkelried](#): > > _Au contraire_, my dear chap! If the earth’s rotation has changed, and each day has become 1.26 microseconds shorter, that doesn’t mean that your biological clock has changed by the same amount. So you will be living **longer**! Instead of living something like 29200 days (approx. 80 years), you will be living 29200 days + 0.2 seconds (assuming you live approx. 40 years+ after the earthquake). Eight hours will now be _more_ than one-third of day; I think the extra 0.42 microseconds working should be paid at time-and-a-half. I wouldn’t celebrate the extra per-lifetime 0.2 seconds though; everyone reading this has already blown that bonus and more. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-recalibrate-your-atomic-clock/531909/9 "2010-03-10T19:00:14Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > Point-of-order: Zombie jokes belong in threads pertaining to the Haiti earthquake. Indeed. Chilean earthquakes should bring on potato jokes, including couch potato and mouse potato jokes. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-recalibrate-your-atomic-clock/531909/10 "2010-03-10T19:07:53Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Between that and going on daylight saving time next week, I’m going to be losing sleep. I’ll be like a walking zombie. > > And you know what that signifies… A hunger for brains? Isn’t “walking zombie” redundant? Isn’t that one of the main problems with zombies is that they are walking around and not being good little dead people? ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/better-recalibrate-your-atomic-clock/531909/11 "2010-03-10T19:25:06Z")
> [@Wile\_E](#): > > Isn’t “walking zombie” redundant? Isn’t that one of the main problems with zombies is that they are walking around and not being good little dead people? That’s to distinguish me from the zombies that are swimming, biking, or dancing.