As we've already entered 2024, an additional day has also been added to our calendars, making it a leap year. This means that February 2024 consists of 29 days instead of the usual 28 days. Leap years occur every four years, with the previous one taking place in 2020 and the next one scheduled for 2028. Leap Day falls on February 29. Typically, February is the shortest month of the year, spanning 28 days. However, about once every four years, the month will get another date added to its calendar.
While Julius Caesar is often credited for originating leap days, he got the idea from the Egyptians. By the third century BCE, Egyptians followed a solar calendar that spanned 365 days with a leap year every four years.
What Is Leap Day?
Leap Day is an extra day that is added to the end of February every four years. This makes February have 29 days instead of the usual 28.
Why Do We Have Leap Years and Leap Days?
Leap years and leap days are necessary to keep our calendar in sync with the seasons. A year is the amount of time it takes a planet to orbit its star one time. A day is the amount of time it takes a planet to finish one rotation on its axis. The Earth takes approximately 365.2422 days to complete one orbit around the Sun, which is slightly longer than 365 days. So, our year is not an exact number of days. To make sure that the extra part of a day is counted as well, we add one day to the calendar approximately every four years. And without leap years, our calendar would gradually fall out of alignment with the seasons.
How Do We Determine Which Year Is a Leap Year?
The rule is that a year is considered a leap year if it is divisible by four, except for years that are divisible by 100. However, if a year is divisible by 400, then it is still considered a leap year. For example, the year 2000 was a leap year, but the year 2100 will not be.
List Of Leap Years
The complete list of leap years in the first half of the 21st century is therefore 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020, 2024, 2028, 2032, 2036, 2040, 2044, and 2048.
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