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Leap second may cause computer chaos

WASHINGTON — This might sound like another Y2K scare. The Leap Second may wreak havoc on the Internet’s infrastructure.

On June 30, at 11:59 p.m., clocks will count up all the way to 60 seconds to allow the Earth’s rotation to sync with atomic time.

The spin of the planet has been slowing down, while atomic clocks are constant.

The last time there was a Leap Second, it was 2012. Websites, the Linux operating system and programs using Java had problems, USA TODAY reports.

What happens when there is a Leap Second is that computers and servers are shown the same second twice in a row, which can throw them into a panic.

Since they were introduced in 1972, there have been 25 resets like this.

The U.S. wants to get rid of them, but others oppose the idea because it would mean the end of Greenwich Mean Time, which is measured by the sun.

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