Ephemeris day

An ephemeris day is a period of 86,400 SI seconds. The actual length of a solar day varies, and has a tendency to get longer as the tides slow the Earth down (see Tidal acceleration). In the Système International (SI), the length of day during the late 19th century was used to define the second. (See ΔT.) In recent decades, the length of a solar day has usually been a couple of milliseconds more than an ephemeris day.