How do you do this problem ?

Question

Every fourth year, the calendar year is 366 days long. Using your knowledge of Earth's revolution, explain why such a leap year is necessary. What would happen to the calendar compared to the seasons if leap years were not observed?

Answer 1

The ratio of the time it takes Earth to orbit the Sun, and the time it takes Earth to rotate back to facing the Sun in the same way again is 365.242375.

It's not a whole number, so over a large amount of time, we need the average year to be 365.242375 days long, or else we'll slowly get out of synch with the seasons. The seasons follow the schedule of the Earth's orbit of the sun.

If we stopped observing leap years and just stuck with a 365-day year, we would jump ahead of the seasons. If the longest day of the year (midsummer) were June 21st this year, after 100 years without a leap year, the longest day of the year would by 25 days earlier, on May 27th.

Answer 2

The extra day every fourth year is necessary because the earth does not relove around the sun in exactly 365 days. It takes very close to 365.25 days (on average)

So every four years has 1461 days (multiplying 365.25 times 4)
But is we had just used 365 days for each year there would be 1460 days on the calendar.

Without the extra leap day, our calendar would be out of step with the seasons. for example Jan 1 is in winter (for those in the northern hemisphere). Eventually Jan 1 would fall in summer...no snow.

Answer 3

The rotation of the Earth is actually less than 24 hours. This means that over time, we would count a year that is longer than what would take the Earth to orbit the Sun. After many years, winter would slowly shift to the summer months.

The extra day takes into account this extra time to catch the calender up with its actual orbit.

Answer 4

I looked it up in wikipedia.com and it tells you why there is a leap year and te reason for it....just type in "leap year" and do a search.

Answer 5

i would not jump as high