2024 is a leap year. But not every fourth year is a leap year. Here's why
Leap Year
2024 is a leap year. It means this year will have 366 days instead of 365, and the second month, February, will have 29 days instead of 28.
Generally, a leap year comes every four years. The last leap year was 2020, while the next leap year will be 2028. However, many are unaware a leap year does not come every four years, making a few years an exception.
Here's everything you need to know about a leap year, its calculation, its origin, and the exceptions to this 'every four-year' rule.
Leap Year: Why do we need it?
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A year in the solar calendar depicts one revolution the Earth makes around the Sun. The Earth takes 365 days, five hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds to complete one revolution around the Sun.
Thus, scholars, engaged by Roman General Julius Caesar in 46 BC, rounded the year to 365 days. They multiplied the remaining six hours by four to make it 24 hours (one day) and added it to every fourth year. This way, they made up for the extra time and introduced the concept of the leap year to account for variations in crop cycles and seasons that occurred at different times of the year, which confused people.
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Not Every Fourth Year Is A Leap Year
There's an exception to the leap year rule. Since, the six hours used for calculation differed from the actual 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds, adding an extra year did not solve the entire problem. It made the solar year slightly shorter than the calendar year.
In the 16th century, Pope Gregory XIII ordered the cancellation of ten days from the calendar on October 4 to compensate for the accumulated ten extra days. After the declaration, October 15 came the very next day. However, his one-time drastic action did not solve the accuracy issue.
Later, scholars decided that about one leap year, every century would not have 366 days to manage the extra day. They chose years ending with 00 for this. However, this threw the calculations out of whack.
Later, it was decided that the years ending with 00, which were divisible by 400, would be called leap years. Thus, 1900 and 2100 will not count as leap years, but 2000 will.
(With inputs from agencies)