One can see using the binary converter calculator that a 64-digit binary number (like int64) can store significantly bigger numbers than a 32-digit ( int32) one in fact, an int64 can store the number of seconds exceeding the current age of the universe. Luckily, newer systems are being equipped with bigger memory allocated to store the value of Unix time (from int32 to int64) so that this problem will never happen again. This problem is very similar to the "Year 2000 Problem" and has no universal fix. After the overflow happens, the computer will read a negative current Unix time and will hence show the date to be 13 December 1901 (2147483647 seconds before 1st January 1970). If we would add one more second to that maximum possible number, it would become -2147483647 due to an unavoidable process called integer overflow. The second problem with UNIX time is that the number is stored in computers in such a way that it has an upper limit of 2147483647, which (using the Unix epoch converter) we can see would correspond to 03:14:07 UTC on 19th January 2038. Leap seconds are extra seconds added to some years to account for the slowing down in the Earth's rotation and avoid mismatches between solar time and our 'everyday time', which is currently called Universal Time Coordinated (UTC). The first of the problems is that Unix epoch time does not take into account leap seconds. It has two flaws that make it complicated to apply for super precise measurements and mean it would need to be replaced or updated at some point. To turn that number (fairly difficult to read for humans) into an intelligible date, the computer performs a series of calculations, as we do in this epoch time converter, so that instead of the current Unix time number, you see a date that makes sense to you. The usage of Unix time made it easy and fast to keep track of time and sync different systems since it means time is a universal number that should always be the same in all computers, independent of the time zone. This date was chosen as it was (at the time) a fairly recent date that had some importance (change of year), but it was still an arbitrary decision. The current Unix time represents the number of seconds that have passed since the 1st of January 1970 at 00:00 (UTC/GMT time). In this aspect, the Unix time works in a similar fashion to the day counter calculator, but instead of counting days, the Unix epoch time counts seconds. It consists of a number stored in the computer that increases by one every second. Unix time or Unix epoch time is the standard way in which computers keep track of time.
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