FEBRUARY 29, 2000 | A thread
February 29, 2000, was a leap day that wasn't supposed to be a leap day that was supposed to be a leap day.
Let me explain...
The calendar year is designed so that the spring and autumn equinoxes (beginning of autumn and spring) are on the same day every year. The problem is that astronomically, a year is approximately 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 45 seconds.
This means that after a long period of time, the equinoxes would fall on a different day. That's why every four years there's an extra day in the calendar (29th Feb - leap day).
The problem with adding an extra day every four years is that we assume that the lost time is 6 hours every year as opposed to the actual 5 hours, 48 min and 45 sec.
Therefore, every 100 years (when there is supposed to be a leap year), we skip a leap year, to readjust to the 11 min and 15 seconds that we add with every leap day.
But even that readjustment is too much! So every 400 years, when we're not supposed to have a leap year (because we skip a leap year every 100 years), we do have a leap year.
As it stands, that is the best we can do to prevent seasons going out of alignment after thousands of years. Since 2000 is a year that is divisible by 4, 100 & 400, it had a leap day.
That's why the 29th of February 2000 was a leap day that wasn't supposed to be a leap day, that was supposed to be a leap day.
Treasure | Multimedia Student
@treasure__n
Imperfect child of God | Unoriginal Thinker | Studying Multimedia @UPTuks 👨🎓