Leap years??

Question

I really dont understand a leap year!Like why do we have the extra day?Can someone please explain it easily aswell!Ok thanks! x

Answer 1

A year is actually 365 and a quarter days long, not an even 365 days.

So every 4 years we toss another day into our calendar to keep us on track with the sun.

If we didn't, then gradually our calendar would get further and further away from the physical year, and eventually Christmas would be in the summer time and Easter would be in the autumn.

Answer 2

In the Gregorian calendar, the current standard calendar in most of the world, most years whose division by 4 equals an integer are leap years. In one leap year, the month of February has 29 days instead of 28. Adding an extra day to the calendar every four years compensates for the fact that a solar year is almost 6 hours longer than 365 days

Answer 3

As the earth actually goes round the sun in 365 days 5 hours 49 minutes and 12 seconds this means that the one in four years leap year still goes out of sync by 10 Minutes 48 seconds a year for this reason some apparent leap years aren't.

A century year needs to be divisible by 400 to become a leap year

so 1600 and 2000 were leap years but 1700 1800 1900 and 2100 are not leap years so you can have 8 years between leap years ie 1896-1904. indeed some early computer programs ie Lotus 123 and early excel mucked this up as they assumed there was a leap year in 1900 in their date counting systems.

This system in use still means that we go a day out of sync in about 8000 years so in future an adjustment will be needed.

without leap years we would eventually have Christmas day in the Summer in the northern hemisphere

Answer 4

Did u know that queen Margaret of England decreed that women could ask men for their hand in marriage on Leap Year. If the man refused he would have to pay a severe fine!



Apparently she fancied a bloke who wouldn't ask her to marry her so she came up with this law.



Today, as you know, the tradition lives on. Unfortunately ladies, February 29 has just passed us by, so you're going to have to wait another 4 years before you can ask me - sorry :)

Answer 5

The earth's rotation doesn't exactly equal 365 days with one revolution around the sun. It's actually closer to 365 and a quarter day. Therefore every four years we have to add an extra day.

Answer 6

The final one, besides the fact that that's a lots shorter hollow, comes after the failed revolution and the dying of Javert. the desirable scenes comes some months to a 365 days later, whilst Marius has recovered and has married Cosette.

Answer 7

there is 365.25 days per year.. so just to make up for that 1 extra day every 4 years, they add a extra day.

Answer 8

they fuked up the calender