29 February Leap Year 2024: How, Why and What

Utkarsh Classes Last Updated 29-02-2024

29 February Leap Year 2024: How, Why and What

Important Day 4 min read

A leap year is a year with an additional day, February 29th, which is added to keep the calendar synchronized with the Earth's rotation around the Sun.

There is an extra day

The concept of leap year was introduced by the Gregorian calendar in the 16th century to address the fractional difference in the solar year.
The calendar was created with the understanding that it takes approximately 365.2422 days each year for the Earth to orbit around the sun. The extra fraction, which amounts to around six hours a year, accumulates over time.

Came up with the leap year

The idea of leap year has undergone changes and modifications throughout history.Ancient civilizations used the cosmos to plan their lives.
Calendars date back to the Bronze Age and were based on either the phases of the moon or the sun, as various calendars are today. Usually, they were "lunisolar," using both.
Then, the Roman Empire and Julius Caesar came along. He introduced his Julian calendar in 45 BCE.
Before the Gregorian calendar, the Romans counted a year at 355 days, but the Gregorian calendar is purely solar and counts a year at 365.25 days. An extra day is added once every four years.
The Julian calendar was used by the Western world for hundreds of years. However, Pope Gregory XIII improved it further.
His Gregorian calendar took effect in the late 16th century and remains in use today. Clearly, it isn't perfect or there would be no need for a leap year."It was a significant improvement as it reduced drift to mere seconds."

Without a leap day

The changing seasons can impact major events, such as crop planting and celestial alignment.
According to Younas Khan, a physics instructor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, without leap years, the gradual shift in seasonal timing would eventually lead to summer occurring in November.
This would result in Christmas being celebrated in the summer, with no snow and a lack of traditional holiday atmosphere."

Leap year and technology

An extra day that occurs twice a decade has caused its fair share of online chaos, particularly in the year 2000.
While the prediction of doomsayers that January 1 would result in a total information shutdown never came true, a series of alarming system errors occurred worldwide on February 29.
This included Japan's meteorological service sending out inaccurate weather reports and Montreal's tax service shutting down.