HOW MANY DAYS IN A YEAR
Each month has either 28, 30, or 31 days during a common year, which has 365 days. During leap years, which occur nearly every 4 years, we add an extra (intercalary) day, Leap Day, on 29 February, making leap years 366 days long.
LEAP YEARS - GREGORIAN CALENDAR
Generally, it is a leap year, with one extra day, every four years.
(It is also an Olympic year the same year as a leap year.)
However, because the Earth doesn’t take exactly 365 and one quarter of one day to orbit the Sun, the calendar occasionally needs correcting.
Over a period of 400 years, adding an extra day every four years adds up to an error of an extra three days that shouldn’t be in the calendar.
The solution is that the Gregorian calendar drops three leap days every 400 years.
The rule for leap years is: every year that can be divided by four is a leap year, except for years that can be divided by 100, but these centurial* leap years are leap years if they can be divided by 400.
So 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not leap years. The years 1600 and 2000 were leap years and 2400 will also be.
MORE FUN FACTS
Each month has either 28, 30, or 31 days during a common year, which has 365 days. During leap years, which occur nearly every 4 years, we add an extra (intercalary) day, Leap Day, on 29 February, making leap years 366 days long.
LEAP YEARS - GREGORIAN CALENDAR
Generally, it is a leap year, with one extra day, every four years.
(It is also an Olympic year the same year as a leap year.)
However, because the Earth doesn’t take exactly 365 and one quarter of one day to orbit the Sun, the calendar occasionally needs correcting.
Over a period of 400 years, adding an extra day every four years adds up to an error of an extra three days that shouldn’t be in the calendar.
The solution is that the Gregorian calendar drops three leap days every 400 years.
The rule for leap years is: every year that can be divided by four is a leap year, except for years that can be divided by 100, but these centurial* leap years are leap years if they can be divided by 400.
So 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not leap years. The years 1600 and 2000 were leap years and 2400 will also be.
MORE FUN FACTS
- The Earth takes 365 and one quarter of one day to orbit the Sun.
- The moon takes about 27 days and 8 hours to orbit the Earth.
- It takes just more than 23 hours and 56 minutes for the Earth to rotate once.
- The length of a day is occasionally changed from exactly 24 hours by adding leap seconds. This is necessary because the time it takes for the Earth to rotate does vary by a tiny amount.
December 21st is the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year!
Solstices mark the longest and shortest days of the year, sort-of…
Although the solstice gets an entire day of recognition, it happens in an instant, at 10:44 a.m. in the UK!
That’s the point when the North Pole is at its farthest tilt away from the sun. In the UK, we’ll get about 7 hours and 50 minutes worth of daylight.
If you live near the Arctic circle, which is pointing far away from the Sun, you’ll get about 4 hours of daylight.
Solstices mark the longest and shortest days of the year, sort-of…
Although the solstice gets an entire day of recognition, it happens in an instant, at 10:44 a.m. in the UK!
That’s the point when the North Pole is at its farthest tilt away from the sun. In the UK, we’ll get about 7 hours and 50 minutes worth of daylight.
If you live near the Arctic circle, which is pointing far away from the Sun, you’ll get about 4 hours of daylight.