Unix (epoch) timestamp converter
Convert and view the current epoch timestamp
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What is Unix time?
Unix time is the number of seconds that have passed since January 1, 1970 (the birth of Unix, or the Unix epoch). Many Linux systems store Unix time dates as a signed 32-bit integer.
Why do we use the Unix Epoch?
Unix time is useful for developers and computer scientists because it represents a constant measure of time across time zones. Accounting for time zones around the world is a notoriously difficult task, and thus having a standard in the Unix Epoch helps coordinate and reduce ambiguity across time zones.
Useful Unix timestamp conversions
Given that the Unix timestamp is based on the second, we can make some quick conversions for easy human readability:
- 1 minute: 60 seconds
- 1 hour: 3,600 seconds
- 1 day: 86,400 seconds
- 1 week: 604,800 seconds
- 1 month: 2,629,743 seconds (30.44 days on average)
- 1 year: 31,556,926 seconds (365.24 days)
You’ll notice that months are averaged out to account for the different number of days. Similarly, a Unix year is ¼ day longer than the calendar year to account for 1 leap day every 4 years.
Unix time and leap seconds
One challenge for Unix timestamps is that there is some ambiguity whenever a leap second occurs. On occasion an additional second must be added to the UTC time to account for changes in the earth’s rotation and other external factors. When this happens, the Unix timestamp must account for this leap second by adding an extra second at midnight. These leap seconds are hard to predict, and are generally announced several months ahead of their addition.
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