Post by loobyloo on Feb 23, 2024 16:35:14 GMT 1
This year is a Leap Year
Thursday 29 Feb 2024
Why do we have Leap Years?
The extra Leap Day is added to the calendar every four years so that our calendar stays synchronized with the astronomical seasons.
If our calendar had the same amount of days every year, the calendar would eventually drift away from the events it is supposed to track and coincide with.
The extra day corrects this discrepancy between the dating system and the solar system.
This happens because the Earth's orbit around the Sun takes approximately 365.25 days. However, it is not possible to represent a quarter of a day in a calendar,
so a Common Year in the Gregorian calendar has 365 days. As a result, it does not perfectly align with the solar year.
This .25 difference is what gradually makes our calendar become out of sync, and over four years that extra day is added to realign the calendar and give Earth
that additional time to do a full orbit around the Sun.
If the Leap Year didn't exist, after 100 years of having .25 fewer days, the seasons would be off by 25 days, and the countries in the Northern Hemisphere such
as the United States would experience Summer in February.
The Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sanchez, born in 1972, is one of a select club to be born on February 29.
Thursday 29 Feb 2024
Why do we have Leap Years?
The extra Leap Day is added to the calendar every four years so that our calendar stays synchronized with the astronomical seasons.
If our calendar had the same amount of days every year, the calendar would eventually drift away from the events it is supposed to track and coincide with.
The extra day corrects this discrepancy between the dating system and the solar system.
This happens because the Earth's orbit around the Sun takes approximately 365.25 days. However, it is not possible to represent a quarter of a day in a calendar,
so a Common Year in the Gregorian calendar has 365 days. As a result, it does not perfectly align with the solar year.
This .25 difference is what gradually makes our calendar become out of sync, and over four years that extra day is added to realign the calendar and give Earth
that additional time to do a full orbit around the Sun.
If the Leap Year didn't exist, after 100 years of having .25 fewer days, the seasons would be off by 25 days, and the countries in the Northern Hemisphere such
as the United States would experience Summer in February.
The Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sanchez, born in 1972, is one of a select club to be born on February 29.
