This means that centuries are only a leap year if they are divisible by 400. Note: The above rule does not apply to century years.Ĭenturies such as 19 only have a leap day if they are divisible by 400.ġ900 is divisible by 4 and also by 100, but not by 400, so not a leap year. Last year also saw the Off Broadway production of Bess Wohl’s Camp Siegfried, a drama about a 1938 Nazi youth camp on Long Island. By adding once in the 4 years one extra additional day this problem is solved.Īny year that is divisible by 4 is a leap year, such as 2016, 2020, 2024, 2028. If the Leap year occurred in 2020,then 2021,2022 2023 will not be Leap Years but 2024 will be the Leap Year. Leap years happen every four years, when February has 29 days instead of 28. This is done because one year doesn't contain 365 days but 365.25 days. Definition a year that has 366 days instead of 365. Thanks to leap year, our seasons will always occur when we expect them to occur, and our calendar year will match the Earth’s sidereal year.When it's a leap year?A leap year is a year with 366 days instead of 365 every 4 years in February one extra day is added. Every three years, you get to celebrate your birthday on March 1 and continue to grow old like the rest of us. Instead of your birthday occurring on a Tuesday as it would following a common year, during a leap year, your birthday “leaps” over Tuesday and will now occur on a Wednesday.Īnd if you happen to be born on leap day February 29, that doesn’t mean you only celebrate a birthday every four years. However, the addition of an extra day during a leap year means that your birthday now “leaps” over a day. That means that if your birthday were to occur on a Monday one year, the next year it should occur on a Tuesday. The next time a leap year will be skipped is the year 2100.Īnd why is it called “leap year?” Well, a common year is 52 weeks and 1 day long. The year 2000 was a leap year, for example, but the years 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not. The rule is that if the year is divisible by 100 and not divisible by 400, leap year is skipped. For this reason, not every four years is a leap year. Over time, these extra 44+ minutes would also cause the seasons to drift in our calendar. Rounding strikes again! By adding a leap day every four years, we actually make the calendar longer by over 44 minutes. Some simple math will show that over four years the difference between the calendar years and the sidereal year is not exactly 24 hours. This would be annoying if not devasting, because over a period of about 700 years our summers, which we’ve come to expect in June in the northern hemisphere, would begin to occur in December!īy adding an extra day every four years, our calendar years stay adjusted to the sidereal year, but that’s not quite right either. If we didn’t account for this extra time, the seasons would begin to drift. This “sidereal” year is slightly longer than the calendar year, and that extra 5 hours 48 minutes and 56 seconds needs to be accounted for somehow. It takes Earth 365.242190 days to orbit the Sun, or 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes and 56 seconds. So, if your birthday fell on a Wednesday last year, in a leap year it leaps over Thursday and lands on Friday. A leap year is comprised of 52 weeks plus two days. What’s going on and why do we have leap year?Ī calendar year is typically 365 days long. These so called “common years” loosely define the number of days it takes the Earth to complete one orbit around the Sun. However, a leap year changes this scenario. For example, most people believe that leap year occurs once every four years, but that’s not always the case. Instead of 28 days, this year February will have 29 days. Almost everyone if familiar with the concept of leap year, but the reasoning behind it is a little complicated.
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