How often does the Calandar need adjustment?

Question

Me and my Teacher are at ends, He believes the calendar needs to be changed every 250 years or so to remain acurate, while I thought it was a much longer period. I've tried to find it via a Google search, but came up with nothing. So do you think you guys can help?

Question - How often does the standard calendar used in America need days - hours added onto it for remain accurate. I am aware that the system right now of 365.25 days a year isn't completely accurate, so don't say "every year" and please give an answer I can use (not "We should switch to a different system" or nonsense like that) and perferrably with a source listed.

Also it's not cheating on any sort of exam. This is just a discussion between me and my math teacher.

Thanks! first one to answer properly will get the "Best Answer"

Ahem... thank you for giving the exact kind of answer I didn't want. Next time please read. what i'm really asking is when does the system of 365.25 days have to be changed? suchas to 366 days or something like that.

Answer 1

Most people can tell you that a year has 365 days. If you want to be fastidious, you can say that a year has 365.25 days, to account for the extra day we add once every four years in the leap year.

But even that is not exactly right. The rules governing leap years are complex. In 1923, a calendar adjustment eliminated the extra day for years divisible by 100 that do not leave a remainder of 200 or 600 when divided by 900.


The net result is that according to the revised Julian calendar, a year has 365.24222... days.

But even that is not exactly right. From an astronomical perspective, a year has 365.24219 days.

This would require adjustment (the addition of a day) approximately every 4 years with the exception of those influenced by the 1923 adjustment. There is considerably more detail at the website I sourced.

Answer 2

there is a whole system, of course you know we add a day every four years for leap years....

but then once every so many years (i don't remember how many) we don't add that leap day even though it is the fourth year since the last one...

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