Why is a leap once every 4 years instead of eight years?

Question

So Feb. can have 30 days, instead of 29 on a leap year.

Answer 1

actually february would have 29 days instead of 28 ......
the leap year has to do with the rotation(one day) of earth being 23 hours and 56 minutes.......
i just learned this in science...

Answer 2

Why stop there, we could have one every 12 and have 31 days in February...

Main reason is because we follow the Gregorian calendar, and that's the way the almighty Pope Gregory the XIII wanted it. Calendars are very hard to change. We used the Julian calendar for over 1500 years, despite knowing for most of that time that it had become very innaccurate.

But Gregory's advisors did the math and noted that there are approximately 365 1/4 days a year. So common sense says to add the extra day every 4 years, as soon as that remainder becomes a whole number (hence, a whole day).

Answer 3

I really have no clue.. but a leap year is only a leap year so the calender can catch up with the suns rotation. Each year is equal to 365 days and .25 of a day

Answer 4

The occurence of the leap year arises from the fact that one year is actually 365.24 days long. The leap days, once every 4 years, but not on the 100-year marks, but still on the 400-year marks, make up for this difference of 0.24 days from the standard 365.

Answer 5

This happens every four years, because it takes approximately 365 and 1/4 days for the earth to revolve around the sun... so to make it simpler, we just round that time down to 365 days exactly, and just add a day every 4 years.

Answer 6

"Thirty days hath September, April, June and November ..."

Yeah, we could wait and add two days once every eight years instead of one once every four, but why should we? Our calender would be off by two days by the time we made the correction, instead of just one day. It might not make much difference in things - when to plant your tomatoes, for instance - but whatever difference it made would be the wrong way, for the worse instead of the better.

Answer 7

Because of the way the Earth rotates around the sun. Its really 365 days and a quarter of a day. So every 4 years we add a day. Science baby.

Answer 8

A true year is 365.25 days, so every 4 years give us an extra day. We'd be out one day for the other 4 years if they waited to do eight. It'd screw all the time zones up.

Answer 9

It isn't for the sake of convenience, it hasto do with a variation in the earth/moon orbit that an extra day every FOUR years accounts for. Otherwise we would slowly lose grasp of our time system as we know it.
Like daylight savings on a larger scale.

Answer 10

Because every year is actually 365.25 days long, so in order to ensure that our calendar doesn't get thrown off over time, we just give February an extra day once every 4 years.