Why Do We have leap years? I'll tell you

  • Thread starter Necromancer540
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Necromancer540

Necromancer540

I'm Not A Pikachu
Towns Folk
Despite what you think a year is not 365 days its actually 365 and a quarter days. How can you put a six hour day in a calendar? Obviously that's impossible. Those quarter days make the seasons drift out of sync with the calendar, You would expect summer to fall in June, July and August and winter in December, January and February, without leap days the cycle will be reversed as in winter in June, July and August and summer in December January and February
So the first year may complete its orbit at 6 am
second by noon
third by 6 pm
and the forth by midnight of the previous day
in order to keep us aligned with our seasons we give February an extra day every 4 years
If your birthday is on February 29th celebrate it on March 1st in common years

But wait we're not done because a year is actually slightly less than 365 and 1/4 days by 11 minutes meaning in 128 days from now if we keep adding leap days forever we'll be of by 1 day again
so every century the leap year is skipped 1896 and 1904 were leap years but 1900 wasn't. but that's not all we will be off by 1 day in 400 years so every century divisible by 400 is a leap year so 2000 was a leap year but even still the calendar still is not perfect we will be off 1 day in 8000 years so we're good for a while.

One more thing I wanna know people who were really born on March 1st, do you get frustrated that you have to wait one more day for your birthday?
 
Thanks for the explanation. I've been wondering about the divide by 400 rule and this helped clear it up for me. Just to confirm, a year is a leap year if it is divisible by 4, 100, or both (400)?
 
Thanks for the explanation. I've been wondering about the divide by 400 rule and this helped clear it up for me. Just to confirm, a year is a leap year if it is divisible by 4, 100, or both (400)?
We have a leap year every 4 years, If the year is divisible by 100 it is not a leap year unless it is also divisible by 400.
so 1700 1800 1900 are not leap years but 2000 was
 
We have a leap year every 4 years, If the year is divisible by 100 it is not a leap year unless it is also divisible by 400.
so 1700 1800 1900 are not leap years but 2000 was

Okay, I think I get it. It has to be divisible by 4 to be a leap year. It cannot be divisible by 100 unless it is also divisible by 4. So you can only divide by 4 or 400, but not 100. Thanks for the clarification.
 
I thought that the calender is one day off every 20000 years not every 8000 years.
 
wow, this is interesting and hard to get your head around. :p

I've always wondered why as well. Thanks for sharing! Might need to read it a few times to understand it. xD
 
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