What is meant by LEAP YEAR?

Question

1.Every year that is divisible by 4 is said to be a leap year.
2.But its also said that every 4th century is a leap year and no other century is a leap year.
3.Now 1900 is divisible by 4, hence it can be said as leap year. But according to 2nd point, its not the leap year. Also 2020 the same case..

How is this?? Please clear me....Note that 2020 year has 29 days in Feb according to systems tray clock..

Answer 1

A leap year has an extra day in it (February 29). That happens every 4 years, except for years which are both divisible by 100 and not divisible by 400. Therefore, the year 2000 will be a leap year, but the years 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not. The complete list of leap years in the first half of the 21st century is therefore 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020, 2024, 2028, 2032, 2036, 2040, 2044, and 2048.

Answer 2

Earth takes 365+1/4 days to revolve around the sun. 1 day has 24 hours that makes 1 day. A year has 365 days as the 1/4 * 24 = 6 hours is taken as extra for the sake of convenience. Then the 6 hours make 1 day in four years. So, the leap year occurs every four years. The surplus day is added in the February. February contains 28 days in all years and leap year contains 28 + 1 = 29 days. So, the leap year contains 366 days

Answer 3

A leap year is a year which has an extra day added to it. Leap years are necessary because the a solar year is slightly more than 365 days. Leap years are every four years. Without leap years, the months would no longer correspond to the seasons.

Answer 4

Years divisible by 4 is a leap year. On these years the month of February as 29 days instead of the usual 28.

Answer 5

What is a leap year?
A leap year is a year with one extra day inserted into February, the leap year is 366 days with 29 days in February as opposed to the normal 28 days. (There are a few past exceptions to this)
Which years are leap years?

In the Gregorian calendar, which is the calendar used by most modern countries, the following rules decides which years are leap years:

1. Every year divisible by 4 is a leap year.
2. But every year divisible by 100 is NOT a leap year
3. Unless the year is also divisible by 400, then it is still a leap year.

This means that year 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200, 2300 and 2500 are NOT leap years, while year 2000 and 2400 are leap years.

This actually means year 2000 is kind of special, as it is the first time the third rule is used in many parts of the world.

In the old Julian Calendar, there was only one rule: Every year divisible by 4 is a leap year. This calendar was used before the Gregorian calendar was adopted.
Why are leap years needed?
Leap years are needed so that the calendar is in alignment with the earth's motion around the sun.

Answer 6

A leap year (or intercalary year) is a year containing an extra day, week or month in order to keep the calendar year synchronised with the astronomical or seasonal year. For example, February would have 29 days instead of just 28. Seasons and astronomical events do not repeat at an exact number of days, so a calendar which had the same number of days in each year would over time drift with respect to the event it was supposed to track. By occasionally inserting (or intercalating) an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected. A year which is not a leap year is called a common year.

Leap years (which keep the calendar in sync with the year) should not be confused with leap seconds (which keep clock time in sync with the day).

Answer 7

Every 4th year is a leap year.
There is only one exception: centuries follow a special rule.
Most of the time, the century (e.g. 1700, 1800, 1900) is NOT a leap year. However, every 4th century is a leap year. That's why 2000 was a leap year.

So, basically, every 4 years, we will have leap years, except for 2100, 2200, 2300, 2500, 2600, 2700, 2900, etc.
(2400 and 2800 will be leap years)

Answer 8

A leap year (or intercalary year) is a year containing an extra day, week or month in order to keep the calendar year synchronised with the astronomical or seasonal year. For example, February would have 29 days instead of just 28. Seasons and astronomical events do not repeat at an exact number of days, so a calendar which had the same number of days in each year would over time drift with respect to the event it was supposed to track. By occasionally inserting (or intercalating) an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected. A year which is not a leap year is called a common year.

Leap years (which keep the calendar in sync with the year) should not be confused with leap seconds (which keep clock time in sync with the day).

The Gregorian calendar, the current standard calendar in most of the world, adds a 29th day to February in all years evenly divisible by 4, except for centennial years (those ending in -00), which receive the extra day only if they are evenly divisible by 400. Thus 1600, 2000 and 2400 are leap years but 1700, 1800, 1900 and 2100 are not.

The reasoning behind this rule is as follows:

The Gregorian calendar is designed to keep the vernal equinox on or close to March 21, so that the date of Easter (celebrated on the Sunday after the 14th day of the Moon that falls on or after 21 March) remains correct with respect to the vernal equinox.
The vernal equinox year is currently about 365.242375 days long.
The Gregorian leap year rule gives an average year length of 365.2425 days.
This difference of a little over 0.0001 days means that in around 8,000 years, the calendar will be about one day behind where it should be. But in 8,000 years' time the length of the vernal equinox year will have changed by an amount which can't be accurately predicted (see below). So the Gregorian leap year rule does a good enough job.

In order to get a closer approximation, it was decided to have a leap day 97 years out of 400 rather than once every 4 years. To implement the model, it was provided that years divisible by 100 would be leap years only if they were divisible by 400 as well. So, in the last millennium, 1600 and 2000 were leap years, but 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not. In this millennium, 2100, 2200, 2300 and 2500 will not be leap years, but 2400 will be. The years that are divisible by 100 but not 400 are known as "exceptional common years".

enough?

Answer 9

I was taught every year is actually 365 and 1/4 days long but we save the 1/4 up until there is enough for a day which is every 4 yrs then Feb is 29 days long instead of 28

Answer 10

It takes the earth 365.25 days to go around the Sun. Every four years an extra day is added to February. The year that occurrs is the leap year.