Aren't we older or younger since we are alive shorter some years or longer some years? plzz help its killing me!
2006-08-13 11:48:24 · 8 answers · asked by spaghetti-lo 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
If you sleep for 24 hours, are you a day younger?
If you sail over the International Date Line, are you a day older or a day young (depending on direction?). If you go in the right direction, you lose a day when you pass over it. Therefore, do astronauts lose (or gain?) a day each orbit? According to Wiki,Valeri Polyakov orbited the earth a record number of about 7,075 times so he will have lost (or gained) approximately 19yrs 4month. He was born in 1942 and became a cosmonaut aged 30, last flying at age 53. Allowing for dateline loss that would have made him only 10 when he became a cosmonaut. Alternatively, if he went the other way he would have been 72 on his last flight.
He may however have gone both ways and canceled out the effect totally just to annoy Einstein.
Your question is remeniscent of the riots that happened with the change to the Gregorian calendar.
2006-08-13 13:08:22 · answer #1 · answered by Mesper 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Not really.
The time that we add to a leap year is basically a correction day to make up for fractions of days that we have ignored the preceding 3 years.
The year is not exactly 365 days long, but more like 365.25 days. That is not an exact figure either, but will do for this discussion. If you want to get into deeper understandings of leap years, leap centuries and leap millennia, try starting a new topic.
But back to the question. You aren't getting any extra time. It is sort of like going to daylight savings time in the spring and then back to normal time in the fall. You "lend out" an hour in the spring and then get it back in the fall. That has not changed the total number of hours in the year, though.
With Leap year it is the same thing. You "save" a fourth of a day each year that is not a leap year, then "cash them in" on that fourth year to get that extra day back.
2006-08-13 19:16:01 · answer #2 · answered by sparc77 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
No, we're not older or younger, we live for the same amount of time regardless of what calendar we use. Think about it, babies born Feb 29 are still 1 yr older on March 1st, right? If we went strictly according to the calendar, then a 16 yr old would only be 4 yrs old.
Time goes on.
2006-08-13 21:58:10 · answer #3 · answered by Dolores G. Llamas 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The calendar is a manmade convention just to keep track of time, according to the movement of the earth around the sun. Time is not dependent on the calendar, and neither is biological aging. Time passes and we age constantly whether we are aware of leap years or not.
So, why should this question be killing you?
2006-08-13 19:47:09 · answer #4 · answered by ELI 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No, because the leap year (one extra day in February, every four years) evens out the actual time it takes the Earth to revolve around the sun; 365 1/4 days.
So, every four years, we combine the quarter days and give that year an extra day.
2006-08-13 18:56:35 · answer #5 · answered by MenifeeManiac 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No, you live the same amount of time it doesn't matter how you count the time. The calendar is an artificial method of keeping track of time, but tearing a day out of the calendar doesn't change the amount of time has passed.
2006-08-13 19:05:35 · answer #6 · answered by idiot detector 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Well technically, no, we're the same.
2006-08-13 18:53:29 · answer #7 · answered by andy14darock 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i think so and theoraticly yes!
2006-08-13 18:53:37 · answer #8 · answered by Berii 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋