Friday Fact - Leap Year

Today is February 29th, a day that only shows up during leap years. Yup, 2008 is a leap year...one additional day to have Bush/Cheney running things. 

Most people know that leap years were added to the calendar to keep it in alignment with the solar year...the actual time it takes the Earth to travel around the sun: 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds.   

These added hours and minutes may not seem like much of a difference, but after a few years, they begin to add up.  After four years, it adds up to about a day, but if left unchecked...say a hundred years...the difference would amount to about 25 days.  That would mean that instead of summer beginning in June, it would start almost a month later, in July.  This wouldn't do so every four years a leap day is added to the calendar to allow it to catch up to the solar year. 

The Egyptians were the ones that came up with the idea, and I'm still amazed that they figured it out. Later, the Romans adopted this solution for their Julian calendar, and they designated February 29th as the leap day. 

Done.

But wait, it seems that adding a day every four years didn't quite do the trick.  It turned out that this simple formula eventually adds too many days. Things still got out of alignment.  Enter the Gregorian calendar in 1582.  With the Gregorian calendar leap years were omitted three times every four hundred years.  Again, I'm wondering how they figured this all out. So here's the actual "rules" for leap years:

1. Every year divisible by 4 is a leap year.
2. But every year divisible by 100 is Not a leap year
3. Unless the year is also divisible by 400, then it is still a leap year.

Got all that?  No matter. Thankfully, it's all done for us. 

And that's a Friday Fact!

Post Note

In 5th century Ireland St. Bridget complained to St. Patrick about women having to wait so long for a man to propose.  According to the legend, St. Patrick said the yearning females could do the proposing on this one day in February during the leap year.  They called it St. Bridget's Complaint.  Of course, here in the U.S. we call it Sadie Hawkins Day... when unmarried women have the "right" to run after unmarried men and propose to them.

 

 

 

Comments

[jenn in holland]

Hey! I didn't know that was the origin of Sadie Hawkins day.
Hmmm...learn something new every (fri)day I guess.

And BTW, yes, join in anytime with the flashback thing. Cablegirl brainstormed it and hosts it each week with a Mr. Linky at her place. (http://cablegirl.wordpress.com)

[Susan Tidwell]

Great post! I remember Sadie Hawkins dances at school. Always look forward to your Friday Facts, a little education along with entertainment in blogland. Have a great weekend!

[Susan Tidwell]

Oh! Forgot to say - love your new template! Very cosmic!