The List: Leaping Into Leap Year
When the current Gregorian calendar we use was created, it was decided that a year would last 365 days.
Which was almost correct.
In fact, it takes the Earth roughly 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds to travel around the Sun.
So what to do? Easy: just add an extra day every four years.
Or was it really that easy?
- Leap Year happens every four years, except in century years that are not divisible for 400, which 2100 will not be a leap year.
- An extra day is also not quite enough. We’ve had to add a leap second every now and then.
- The last leap second was added on June 30, 2015 at 11:59:60 p.m. The next one is scheduled for June 30 this year at 11:59:60 p.m.
- And to make things even more confusing, in 1712 both Sweden and Finland added a February 30th to their calendars to catch up their outdated Julian calendar.
Confused? Hopefully this will clear things right up.