I was English Major and not sure if I am asking this question correctly. I am writing a scifi fantasy book and

Question

am trying to make a fictional calendar year that makes sense (somewhat). What if 60 earth seconds made 60 earth minutes that made 1 earth hour with 32 hours in my fictional day, 9 days in my fictional week, and 455 days in my fictional year and for my fictional planet to revolve around my fictional sun. How often will I need a leap year?

I know this might sound stupid but humor me please (with real responses).

I forgot to mention months. I want 13.

Sorry to be so anal but if I made my sidereal year 455.36+- , it would make sense to have a "leap year" every 6 years?

Answer 1

With a sidereal year 455.36 days, it would make sense to have a leap year every 3 years, because 3 * 0.36 = 1.08, which is pretty close to a whole number. You will need to skip the leap year two out of every 25 times to cancel out the extra 0.08s that add up to exactly 2 after 25 leap years. So basically it means you have 23 leap years every 75 years. I'll let you make up a rule that works for which ones to leave out for that rather inconvenient number combination.

Answer 2

Okay, so this is a 'fictional' planet that takes 32 +/- hours to revolve once, and it's year if 455 days long ... if each year was 455 days plus X hours and X minutes, how often would you need that extra day to make a 'leap year'? That's up to you, but I've shown you how to 'calculate' this .... add up the X hours and X minutes to equal one day, and that would be a leap year ... or you could subtract them and have the 'leap year' one day shorter, instead. That would be possibly better, because this 'shorter year' could 'represent' something on that planet that is 'essential' to the telling of your story ... and DO NOT call it a 'leap year' but by another (made-up) name ... it's your story and you are the GOD in relationship to this story, so it's all UP TO YOU to decide where and how you want to go in this 'leap year controversy.' WRITE ON!

Answer 3

You can make the leap year as often as you want, since it's the result of the difference between the calendar year and the actual length of your planet's year, which you also must invent. Thus our calendar year is 365 days, but our sidereal year is 365.256363 days. Leap year days are added to make these stay in synch, using a complex system developed by Pope Gregory in the 16th century.

Answer 4

What about months? If this planet has one Moon, you could base it on one lunar orbit. If there are more than one moons, I don't know. It would be complex.

Why have a week if you have no months? Why not have 4 seasons, each one about 113 days. Then on each leap year, add a couple of days to one or two seasons. Of course, if you have seasons, your world must have an axial tilt like Earth.

Then you can have your leap year.
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Answer 5

every third year, but the calendar would be off by about .03 days every year so you would need an extra leap day about every 33 years.