Our watches will not freeze as the planet slows. The assumption is that atomic time will
continue to be adjusted to be accurate to the earths rotation so the navigational charts,
etc., will continue to work. This is currently done with leap seconds. Occasionally a
second is added or subtracted to make the 24 hour atomic time sync with the measured
rotation of the earth, to make the sun-to-sun crossing equal 24 hours. What we expect is
the government will stop reporting when these leap seconds occur. When the time comes
to avoid panic they will not be able to afford to tell the whole truth so it will be hidden.
Probably when they start to get too numerous. At this point we need to have proven time
keeping clocks, whose accuracy we are sure of, so that we can measure the slowing. It
takes a year or two of accurate comparison to atomic time measurements to understand
how inaccurate ones personal clocks are at measuring time.
As the planet slows down more and more seconds will need to be added to the atomic
time for it to sync with rotation. This should become a measurable slowing of atomic
time as compared to our personal clock times. What we expect to see when slowing of
the planets rotation starts is that our personal clocks and watches will have the
appearance of running faster and faster as the atomic clocks are adjusted to be slower
and slower. I think we will best see this slowing show up as an apparent speeding up of
our battery operated LED digital clocks.
Offered by Mike.