what is the purpose of leap year?

Answer 1

Leap years align the calendar year (365 days) with the solar year.

The solar year measures time by the earth's orbit around the sun, and is longer than a calendar year by some six hours. So, every four years (essentially) we add one day to the calendar year (thus having 29 days in February) to account for that six hour difference (the difference is six hours in a year...or, 24 hours in four years).

Answer 2

A year isn't exactly 365 days. The Earth rotates about 365 1/4 times in the time it takes to go round the Sun, so to prevent the calendar getting out of phase with the seasons,a complicated set of rules has been developed to add leap years; every 4 years except for centuries, except every 4th century is a leap year, etc.

Answer 3

A solar year is 365.2422 days long. Leap years are used to keep the calender synchronized with the solar year. On often overlooked fact is, not every year divisible by 4 is a leap year. Years divisible by 100 but not 400 are not leap years.

Edit: Did anyone know that there is also a 'leap second' added occasionally? Leap years are not enough to keep the calender accurate.

Answer 4

It's all about Groundhog Day. Without leap years Groundhog Day happens one day earlier every four years. So, Julius Caesar put leap years in the Julian Calendar. He still didn't get it right. After a while Groundhog Day got to be four days too early so Pope Gergory fiddled with the number of leap years to keep it from drifting any further. Now the Groundhog comes out of his burrow four days too early but at least he's not doing it in July.

Byt the way, Jeran, that's 23 hours 56 minutes and 4 seconds.

Answer 5

Because the Earth makes one full revolution around the sun in about 365 and one-fourth days.

To make up for the fourth of a day, every four years the quarter adds up to a whole day, which is added to the calendar.

Answer 6

cuz theres 365 1/4 days in a year, so every four years, they just add an extra day to the calendar to count that fourth

Answer 7

the earth's orbit is more like 365.25 days. After four years we need to make up the full day.

Answer 8

there is actually 23 hours and 59 minutes in a day and when you add that up over the four years it equals a day so they add the day to even it out.