Happy Intercalary Day!

February 29, 2008 | By Kelley Koehler | Filed Under Odds and Ends 

February 29th – it’s Leap Day!

Seems like as good a time as any to finally figure out why, exactly, we go around adding days to our calendar.

- The length of a solar year, on which our calendar is based, is 365.242 days, which is about 11 minutes shorter than 365.25 days.

- To compensate for the extra .242th of a day, we add one day to the calendar every 4th year, so every year divisible by 4 becomes a leap year.

- Except: Since the solar year is 365.242 days, and we’re basically making each year exactly 365.25, we’re adding a little extra each year.  In fact, adding a day every 4th year adds about 3 extra days over 400 years.  So only every 4th century year is a leap year.  The year 2000 was a leap year, but 2010 will not be, and 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not leap years.  You can determine which century is a leap year if it’s evenly divisible by 400.

Don’t you feel better now?  I know I do.  Go enjoy your extra day.

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