what is a leap year Related: Chapter Notes - Motions of the Earth?
Leap Year:
A leap year is a year that has an extra day added to it, making it 366 days instead of the usual 365 days. This extra day is known as a leap day and is added to the calendar on February 29th. Leap years occur every four years, except for years that are divisible by 100 but not divisible by 400. For example, the year 2000 was a leap year, but the year 1900 was not.
Why do we have a leap year?
The reason we have a leap year is that the Earth's orbit around the Sun takes approximately 365.25 days to complete. If we didn't have a leap year, our calendar would gradually fall out of sync with the seasons. After a few hundred years, our calendar would be off by several months, and the seasons would no longer match up with the months on the calendar.
How was the leap year discovered?
The ancient Egyptians were the first to discover the need for a leap year over 4,000 years ago. They noticed that the seasons seemed to be drifting out of sync with their calendar, which was based on a 365-day year. To fix this problem, they added an extra day to their calendar every four years.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, a leap year is a year that has an extra day added to it to keep our calendar in sync with the seasons. It occurs every four years, except for years that are divisible by 100 but not divisible by 400. The need for a leap year was discovered by the ancient Egyptians over 4,000 years ago.
what is a leap year Related: Chapter Notes - Motions of the Earth?
Earth takes 365¼ days to revolve around the sun. however, for the sake of conventions we consider a year as consisting of 365 days. The 6 hours (¼th of 24 hours) that are ignored to make one day (24 hours) over a span of four years. This surpuis day is added to the month of February. Thus, every fourth year February has 29 days and such a year (with 366 days) is known as a leap year.
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