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The Gregorian calendar, which now serves as the standard calendar for civil use throughout the world, has both common years and leap years. A common year has 365 days and a leap year 366 days, with the extra, or intercalary, day designated as February 29. A leap year occurs every four years to help synchronize the calendar year with the solar year, or the length of time it takes the earth to complete its orbit about the sun, which is about 365¼ days.

The length of the solar year, however, is slightly less than 365¼ days-by about 11 minutes. To compensate for this discrepancy, the leap year is omitted three times every four hundred years.

In other words, a century year cannot be a leap year unless it is divisible by 400. Thus 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not leap years, but 1600, 2000, and 2400 are leap years.

What are your chances of being born on leap day?

About 1 in 1,500.

When is the birthday party?

If you are born on a Leap Year, do you get your driver's license on February 28th or March 1st? It is an ambiguous question that is decided by each state. Most states, however, consider March 1st the official day. For instance, the Michigan Vehicle Code states that people born on February 29th "are deemed to have been born on March 1st."

How many people were born on leap day?

There are about 187,000 people in the US and 4 million people in the world who were born on Leap Day.

The rules for determining a leap year

Most years that can be divided evenly by 4 are leap years.

Exception: Century years are NOT leap years UNLESS they can be evenly divided by 400.

When did leap year originate?

The Gregorian calendar is closely based on the Julian calendar, which was introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 BC. The Julian calendar featured a 12-month, 365-day year, with an intercalary day inserted every fourth year at the end of February to make an average year of 365.25 days. But because the length of the solar year is actually 365.242216 days, the Julian year was too long by .0078 days (11 minutes 14 seconds).

This may not seem like a lot, but over the course of centuries it added up, until in the 16th century, the vernal equinox was falling around March 11 instead of March 21. In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII adjusted the calendar by moving the date ahead by 11 days and by instituting the exception to the rule for leap years. This new rule, whereby a century year is a leap year only if divisible by 400, is the sole feature that distinguishes the Gregorian calendar from the Julian calendar.

Following the Gregorian reform, the average length of the year was 365.2425 days, an even closer approximation to the solar year. At this rate, it will take more than 3,000 years for the Gregorian calendar to gain one extra day in error.

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12y ago
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12y ago

Because the chicken did not cross the road.

Leap year is in February because the earth has not completely orbited the sun. Without leap year we'll be celebrating Christmas in June!!

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12y ago

I'm not sure why it's in February, but a year is actually 365 1/4 days.

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Q: Why is February a leap year?
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Why is February 2013 a leap year - why not February 2012?

February 2013 is not a leap year. 2012 was a leap year.


Which day is Feb 29 in 1990?

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What is the last day of summer in the southern hemisphere?

it is 29 of February if leap year if not leap year 28 of February


How many seconds in the month of February on a leap year?

There are 2,505,600 seconds in February in a leap year.


How many Wednesdays are in not a leap year in February?

If it is not a leap year there would be 4 Wednesdays in February.


How many weekdays are in February?

In a regular year, February has 20 weekdays. In a leap year, February has 20 weekdays.


Which day will leap year day be on 2013?

2013 is not a leap year.2012 is a leap year, and the next will be 2016. When there is a leap year, leap day is always on February 29.If 2013 was going to be a leap year February 29th would fall on a Friday.


What is a leap day and year?

A leap day/year is when on day is added on to February. It becomes February 29th.


How many days does March have in a leap year?

March has 31 days every year, and does not change in a leap year. February is the only month that changes, adding the 366th leap day as February 29.


Was Feb 1966 a leap year?

No. February 1966 was a month. It had 28 days, as 1966 was not a leap year.


What is a leap year every February?

February is the shortest year


How many days does February have?

In a non-leap year February has 28 and in a leap year it has 29 days A non-leap year is like 2009,2010,2011,2013,2014,2015 A leap year is 2008, 2012, 2016 (every 4 years)