Why Do We Have Leap Years?
What is a Leap Year?
A leap year is a year that has one extra day in it. A leap year occurs roughly every four years. Most years have 365 days, but a leap year has 366 days. The extra day is added onto the end of the shortest month, February; in a leap year, February has 29 days (instead of its usual 28 days). February 29 is called leap day.
Why Do We Have Leap Years?
A year is defined as the time it takes for the Earth to orbit around the sun once. It takes the Earth about 365 1/4 days to make one entire orbit around the sun (a day is one rotation around the Earth's axis). By adding one extra day about every four years, the Earth is in the same point of its orbit at the same time of the calendar year each year.
Before a leap-year calendar was used, the seasons drifted around the calendar (the drift is about 1/4 day or 6 hours each year). For example, over three hundred years, July would go from summer to spring. Our current calendar is called the Gregorian calendar; this calendar was devised by Aloysius Lilius (an Italian physician) and named for Pope Gregory who decreed in 1582 that it be used in Catholic areas. This calendar wasn't adopted in Britain and the American Colonies until 1752. …show more content…
Usually, there is a leap year every four years -- but once in a long while, a leap year has to be skipped (this is because the Earth's orbit is 365.242 days, a bit less than 365
A leap year is a year that has one extra day in it. A leap year occurs roughly every four years. Most years have 365 days, but a leap year has 366 days. The extra day is added onto the end of the shortest month, February; in a leap year, February has 29 days (instead of its usual 28 days). February 29 is called leap day.
Why Do We Have Leap Years?
A year is defined as the time it takes for the Earth to orbit around the sun once. It takes the Earth about 365 1/4 days to make one entire orbit around the sun (a day is one rotation around the Earth's axis). By adding one extra day about every four years, the Earth is in the same point of its orbit at the same time of the calendar year each year.
Before a leap-year calendar was used, the seasons drifted around the calendar (the drift is about 1/4 day or 6 hours each year). For example, over three hundred years, July would go from summer to spring. Our current calendar is called the Gregorian calendar; this calendar was devised by Aloysius Lilius (an Italian physician) and named for Pope Gregory who decreed in 1582 that it be used in Catholic areas. This calendar wasn't adopted in Britain and the American Colonies until 1752. …show more content…
Usually, there is a leap year every four years -- but once in a long while, a leap year has to be skipped (this is because the Earth's orbit is 365.242 days, a bit less than 365