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What is leap year?
Today (February 29, 2024) is the leap day of the year. According to the modern Gregorian calendar, almost every year has 365 days and there is a leap year approximately every 4 years. Have you ever wondered why we need to add an extra day to February every 4 years? Let us move ahead to understand this-
when does leap year come
The main reason for this is to adjust the calendar year to the astronomical year, also called the solar year or tropical year, which means the time taken by the Earth to complete one revolution around the Sun. It takes approximately 365.2422 days to make one complete revolution around the Sun in an astronomical year.
How to Calculate Leap Year
There is a leap year every four years. According to our calendar, there are 365 days in a year because this is the time it takes for the Earth to revolve around the Sun, although this period is not the full 365 days but a little more. The Earth takes 365.242190 days to complete one revolution around the Sun. This makes 365 days, five hours, 48 minutes and 56 seconds. However, these extra hours are added every few years and adjusted as an extra day in the fourth year.
exception– Century Leap Year Adjustment
According to the Gregorian leap year rule, centenary years (multiples of 100) are exempted as leap years, except when they are multiples of 400. For example, 2000, 1200, 1600, etc. are leap years but 1700, 1800, 2100, etc. are not. The leap year of the next century will be 2400.
Leap Year Trivia:The Frog Connection
Leap years are not directly related to frogs in the biological sense. However, there is a different relationship between frogs and leap years depending on the word “leap” in both contexts.
Frogs are known for their ability to jump long distances, hence the term “leapfrog”. Similarly, a leap year keeps our calendar in line with the Earth's revolution around the Sun. This addition of an extra day “leaps” the regular year, just as a frog jumps obstacles.
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