Huh? How Often Do We Have Leap Years, Exactly?
Blocks that spell out Leap Year
If it seems like 2023 just flew by, we are at least in for a longer year in 2024. That's because 2024 is a leap year which means we gain a whole extra day. Just think about how much more you will be able to get done with that extra time. Or, maybe you can think of it as having an extra vacation day. Either way, having an extra 24 hours is a bonus. But how often is leap year, exactly?
If you were born on February 29, you know that leap year doesn't happen often enough. (Unless, of course, you feel like you're not aging during the years that your birthdate doesn't exist!) Typically, we look forward to February for Valentine's Day, but if you were born on the 29th, you finally have a birthday to celebrate as well.
If you are left scratching your head as to why we even need to have a leap year, you're probably not alone. There is a lot of math involved but when you sum it all up, it does make sense why a leap year is needed. We'll explain why leap years are necessary and how often we have a leap year.
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What Is a Leap Year?
In a nutshell, a leap year has 366 days versus the normal 365 days. But why? It's all about the time it takes for the Earth to orbit the sun. According to NASA, it takes the Earth approximately 365.25 days to make its orbit around the sun. We round that time down to 365 days to make up our calendar year. But that quarter day needs to be made up somewhere.
So, every four years or so, we add one extra day to our year in February. Most years, February has just 28 days, but every fourth year, it has 29. Because of leap year, then, our seasons stay consistent.
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How Often Is Leap Year?
Based on the fact that we accumulate a full day approximately every four years, it would seem that we also have a leap year every four years. However, that isn't necessarily true. That quarter-day is slightly less than a true quarter. Air and Space breaks it down to exactly .242190 or 5 hours 48 minutes and 56 seconds. This means that if we were to add a full day every four years, we would actually end up skewing the calendar again. Talk about complicated!
Now the question is, how do we make up for the fact that we are adding about 44 minutes too much when we add a full day to every leap year? The answer is that we can't have a leap year every four years. Sometimes it has to be skipped. But when?
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When Leap Year Is Skipped
If you love math, all of this calculation is going to be fascinating. If not, simply trust the experts. It's pretty mind-boggling! According to Air and Space, we skip a leap year when the year it would normally fall on is divisible by 100 but not divisible by 400. The last time leap year was skipped was in the year 2000 and it won't be skipped again until the year 2100.
Why Is It Called Leap Year?
In a normal year, you can see that special dates like birthdays or holidays usually fall one weekday later than the previous year. So if your birthday was on a Monday one year, it would fall on Tuesday the next. But during leap year, we would "leap" right over that Tuesday, and your birthday would be Wednesday instead.
What Is a Leapling?
If you were born on February 29, then you are a "leapling." It's like a club of people who can't celebrate their birthday on its exact date each year. Some leaplings only celebrate their birthday on a leap year, but most will choose either February 28 or March 1 to celebrate during the years when February 29 simply doesn't exist.
