why are leap years counted?? what difference does it make to add two extra days in the year every four years??

Question

oh sorry, 1 day, i didnt even know it was only ONE day, what difference would it make to earth, the calendar?

romantemple: ahhh! you have a good explanation!! makes total sense! thanks :)

Answer 1

A year is the time that it takes for the Earth to orbit the Sun and return to the same point.

Since the speed (and circumference) of the Earth's orbit has nothing inherently to do with the speed at which the Earth rotates about its axis (which is what defines the length of a day), it would be highly unlikely for the former to last for an integer number of the latter.

Indeed, it does not - the mean (sidereal) year is ~365.25636042 mean solar days long (in terms of SI seconds, both the sidereal year and the solar day vary in their duration; and there are more than one way of precisely defining years and days, each giving a slightly different final result). But I digress...

For practical purposes absolute astronomical precision is irrelevant, so we look to a system that is 'good enough.' In our current case, this is to assume that a year is 365.25 days long (which it ALMOST is), thereby necessitating the addition of an extra day every four years since this is much more rational and easier to do than shifting midnight by six hours each year.

Answer 2

2 extra days? Where the heck did you come up with that? Feb 29th is Leap Day -and it's not about Frogs.

The earth goes around the sun 4 times in 4 years but it doesn't actually make the complete 360 degrees. Every 4th year we "counteract" the loss and add an extra day.

Answer 3

It would make more of a difference than adding one day, which is what we do.

The Julian calendar, authorized by Julius Caesar in 46 B.C., assumed that the year had 365 1/4 days, with a 366-day leap year added every fourth year.

Answer 4

Leapyears are used to keep the calendar sychronized with the actual seasons. Without them, after 100 years the calendar would be off by over 24 days.

The calendar is used for too much agriculture and other seaon-dependent things to allow it to get off by very much.

Also, remember that there aren't just leapyears - sometimes we add leapseconds as well!

Answer 5

Because every year has 365 and 1/4 days, so every four years we have to accomodate the 4 1/4 days.

Answer 6

It actually takes the earth 365.25 days to make it's orbit. So, every 4 years there is an extra day that wouldn't be counted if we didn't add Feb. 29th.

Answer 7

because a day is actually only 23 hours 56 minutes and 45 seconds long or somthing like that so you need to add that day at a rate of once every 4 years to make things work right

Answer 8

because the earth circles the sun about once every 365.25 days...after four years, that .25 adds up to one, so we add ONE extra day to the calendar to stay on track, not two

Answer 9

I hate to break it to you, but when there's a leap year, there's only 1 extra day and it's in Feb.

Answer 10

because they still exsist. if they are not there but they are meaning you might loose data on whatsome thing might has happened on that date it might had happened, like the 9 eleven what is the terorist atcked the building at a leap year not a normal day like nine eleven . please try to understand that we do need the extra noumbers if we are to keep some ones birth day or an important event. it may be your birth day or aniversery do you need that to be lost