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The Water Cooler
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Leap year - every four years?
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<blockquote data-quote="Snattlerake" data-source="post: 3515459" data-attributes="member: 44288"><p>Thumbing through my iPhone I was curious and wondered what day I was born on. I thumbed back to 1956 and discovered I was a Tuesday baby. Knowing this now I was again bored and thumbed forward in time finding out my birthday would again occur on a Tuesday in 2023.</p><p>Thinking I might have something fun to do for a few more seconds I went forward further in time and randomly stopped on the year 2496. I noticed the February month had 29 days showing a leap year. Then something remarkable happened. I went forward another four years to 2500 and Hmmm, no Feb 29th! I flipped it to 2501 thinking I must have missed it. Nope. 2502? No again. 2503? No. 2504? Yes! That was eight years!</p><p></p><p>I thumbed back from 2496 to 2492, leap year. Forward to 2504, leap year.</p><p></p><p>Well sonubeech! </p><p></p><p>Research into leap years I had always learned was every four years was not quite correct.</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"><strong>What Is a Leap Year?</strong></span></p><p>Leap years are years where an extra, or intercalary, day is added to the end of the shortest month, <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/months/february.html" target="_blank">February</a>. The intercalary day, February 29, is commonly referred to as <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/date/leap-day.html" target="_blank">leap day</a>.</p><p></p><p>Leap years have 366 days instead of the <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/date/common-year.html" target="_blank">usual 365 days</a> and occur <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/date/leapyear.html#rules" target="_blank"><strong>almost</strong></a> every four years.</p><p></p><p>Almost every four years? I'm now intrigued. </p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"><strong>Why Do We Have Leap Years?</strong></span></p><p>Leap days keep our modern-day <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/gregorian-calendar.html" target="_blank">Gregorian calendar</a> in alignment with Earth's revolutions around the Sun. It takes Earth approximately 365.242189 days, or 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 45 seconds, to circle once around the Sun. This is called a <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/tropical-year.html" target="_blank">tropical year</a>, and it starts on the <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/march-equinox.html" target="_blank">March equinox</a>.</p><p></p><p>However, the Gregorian calendar has only 365 days in a year. If we didn't add a leap day on February 29 almost every four years, each calendar year would begin about 6 hours before the Earth completes its revolution around the Sun (see illustration).</p><p></p><p>As a consequence, our time reckoning would slowly drift apart from the tropical year and get increasingly out of sync with the <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/seasons-causes.html" target="_blank">seasons</a>. With a deviation of approximately 6 hours per year, the seasons would shift by about 24 calendar days within 100 years. Allow this to happen for a while, and Northern Hemisphere dwellers will be celebrating <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/common/christmas-day" target="_blank">Christmas</a> in the middle of summer in a matter of a few centuries.</p><p></p><p>Leap days fix that error by giving Earth the additional time it needs to complete a full circle around the Sun.</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"><strong>Leap Year Rules: How to Calculate Leap Years</strong></span></p><p>In the Gregorian calendar, three criteria must be taken into account to identify leap years:</p><p></p><p>*1 The year must be evenly divisible by 4;</p><p>*2 If the year can also be evenly divided by 100, it is <em>not</em> a leap year;</p><p>unless...</p><p>*3 The year is also evenly divisible by 400. Then it <em>is</em> a leap year.</p><p>According to these rules, the years <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=2000" target="_blank">2000</a> and <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=2400" target="_blank">2400</a> are leap years,</p><p>while <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=1800" target="_blank">1800</a>, <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=1900" target="_blank">1900</a>, <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=2100" target="_blank">2100</a>, <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=2200" target="_blank">2200</a>, <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=2300" target="_blank">2300</a>, and <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=2500" target="_blank">2500</a> are <em>not</em> leap years.</p><p></p><p>Wanna talk about the leap second?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Snattlerake, post: 3515459, member: 44288"] Thumbing through my iPhone I was curious and wondered what day I was born on. I thumbed back to 1956 and discovered I was a Tuesday baby. Knowing this now I was again bored and thumbed forward in time finding out my birthday would again occur on a Tuesday in 2023. Thinking I might have something fun to do for a few more seconds I went forward further in time and randomly stopped on the year 2496. I noticed the February month had 29 days showing a leap year. Then something remarkable happened. I went forward another four years to 2500 and Hmmm, no Feb 29th! I flipped it to 2501 thinking I must have missed it. Nope. 2502? No again. 2503? No. 2504? Yes! That was eight years! I thumbed back from 2496 to 2492, leap year. Forward to 2504, leap year. Well sonubeech! Research into leap years I had always learned was every four years was not quite correct. [SIZE=5][B]What Is a Leap Year?[/B][/SIZE] Leap years are years where an extra, or intercalary, day is added to the end of the shortest month, [URL='https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/months/february.html']February[/URL]. The intercalary day, February 29, is commonly referred to as [URL='https://www.timeanddate.com/date/leap-day.html']leap day[/URL]. Leap years have 366 days instead of the [URL='https://www.timeanddate.com/date/common-year.html']usual 365 days[/URL] and occur [URL='https://www.timeanddate.com/date/leapyear.html#rules'][B]almost[/B][/URL] every four years. Almost every four years? I'm now intrigued. [SIZE=5][B]Why Do We Have Leap Years?[/B][/SIZE] Leap days keep our modern-day [URL='https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/gregorian-calendar.html']Gregorian calendar[/URL] in alignment with Earth's revolutions around the Sun. It takes Earth approximately 365.242189 days, or 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 45 seconds, to circle once around the Sun. This is called a [URL='https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/tropical-year.html']tropical year[/URL], and it starts on the [URL='https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/march-equinox.html']March equinox[/URL]. However, the Gregorian calendar has only 365 days in a year. If we didn't add a leap day on February 29 almost every four years, each calendar year would begin about 6 hours before the Earth completes its revolution around the Sun (see illustration). As a consequence, our time reckoning would slowly drift apart from the tropical year and get increasingly out of sync with the [URL='https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/seasons-causes.html']seasons[/URL]. With a deviation of approximately 6 hours per year, the seasons would shift by about 24 calendar days within 100 years. Allow this to happen for a while, and Northern Hemisphere dwellers will be celebrating [URL='https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/common/christmas-day']Christmas[/URL] in the middle of summer in a matter of a few centuries. Leap days fix that error by giving Earth the additional time it needs to complete a full circle around the Sun. [SIZE=5][B]Leap Year Rules: How to Calculate Leap Years[/B][/SIZE] In the Gregorian calendar, three criteria must be taken into account to identify leap years: *1 The year must be evenly divisible by 4; *2 If the year can also be evenly divided by 100, it is [I]not[/I] a leap year; unless... *3 The year is also evenly divisible by 400. Then it [I]is[/I] a leap year. According to these rules, the years [URL='https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=2000']2000[/URL] and [URL='https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=2400']2400[/URL] are leap years, while [URL='https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=1800']1800[/URL], [URL='https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=1900']1900[/URL], [URL='https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=2100']2100[/URL], [URL='https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=2200']2200[/URL], [URL='https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=2300']2300[/URL], and [URL='https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=2500']2500[/URL] are [I]not[/I] leap years. Wanna talk about the leap second? [/QUOTE]
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