"Thanks to hundreds of records of lunar and solar eclipses carved in clay tablets and written into dynastic histories, modern scientists have determined that the speed at which Earth spins on its axis has slowed by 1.8 milliseconds per day ...
If humanity had been measuring time with an atomic clock that started running back in 700 BC, today that clock would read 7 p.m. when the sun is directly overhead rather than noon"
Ignoring the awkward phrasing, does the second statement essentially follow from the first, or did the reporter make a gross arithmetic blunder?
From:
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencen ... story.html
Try not to read the LA Times comments before deciding.