why do we have an extra day in feb every 4 years?

englishman


Joined: 25/02/2012
Posts: 34

Message Posted:
29/02/2012 14:24

is it so we have to do an extra days work every 4 years for nowt!

eyebob


Joined: 22/06/2010
Posts: 143

Message Posted:
29/02/2012 15:12

Get a life

teatime


Joined: 20/10/2008
Posts: 852

Message Posted:
29/02/2012 16:48

Because a year is really 365 and a quarter days.

Jovial_John


Joined: 31/01/2009
Posts: 1024

Message Posted:
29/02/2012 17:10

It's actually 11 minutes less than 365.25. These 11 minutes per year are equivalent to 3 days too many every 400 years. The full rules (I know I'm sad and I need a life) are:-



A leap year occurs every 4 years unless it is a 1st, 2nd or 3rd century year (a 4th century year is still a leap year). Thus 1700, 1800 and 1900, although divisible by 4 were not leap years - but 2000 was.



If you don't like it then blame Pope Gregory 13th.

yrret


Joined: 17/08/2010
Posts: 761

Message Posted:
29/02/2012 17:17

Because if it was between Christmas and New Year, everyone would be happy and have an extra day off, having it in February helps people on this forum stay depressed.

jock1



Joined: 06/01/2008
Posts: 3786

Message Posted:
29/02/2012 17:19

7 days in a week, 52 weeks in a year..7x52= 364...iv been robbed.............

Geoff1131


Joined: 12/07/2007
Posts: 276

Message Posted:
29/02/2012 17:34

Its because, if you did'nt have a leap year, Christmas day would eventually fall in the middle of June. And who wants to be wearing those thick woolly jumpers when its 40 degrees outside???????????

Ailletoo


Joined: 24/01/2009
Posts: 1003

Message Posted:
29/02/2012 17:40

Julius Caesar was behind the origin of leap year in 45 BC.



The early Romans had a 355 day calendar and to keep festivals occurring around the same season each year a 22 or 23 day month was created every second year.



Julius Caesar decided to simplify things and added days to different months of the year to create the 365 day calendar.

birdman



Joined: 20/09/2010
Posts: 690

Message Posted:
29/02/2012 21:02

Everyone knows the real reason is to allow women to ask their boyfrriends, once every four years to marry them!



Gerry

englishman


Joined: 25/02/2012
Posts: 34

Message Posted:
29/02/2012 21:31

I did actually know the answer i was just testing you!eyebob saying get a life maybe he did not know why!!!!!

suehowlittle


Joined: 31/10/2010
Posts: 1202

Message Posted:
29/02/2012 21:44

The Romans also began to count the years from 1 (one), when they should have started from 0.(zero)



So everyone celebrated the Millennium in the wrong year.



Not that any of it matters?

colly


Joined: 31/07/2008
Posts: 297

Message Posted:
01/03/2012 07:09

I am campaigning to get the extra day moved to June when the weather is better!

elko2



Joined: 24/07/2007
Posts: 4400

Message Posted:
01/03/2012 07:24

We have a leap year so that the ladies have a chance to talk an extra day and keep them happy. Also a chance to do more shopping.

ismet

Groucho



Joined: 26/04/2008
Posts: 7993

Message Posted:
01/03/2012 07:39

Just to clarify Jovial John's expert testimony, in the case of a century the first two digits of the year have to be divisible by 4... 2000, gives 20 and 20 is divisible by 4. It was one of the 'millennium bug' conundrums that had to be solved to make computers carry on correctly. As no one programming in the early days expected their code to still be running in the year 2000 they contracted the date to save space (yes two digits repeated over and over in every database really did make a difference in the beginning). So 1980 was often stored as 80. Of course in the year 2000 this would render a date of 00 and lead to a 'divide by zero' problem which computer languages do not handle well... So there you have it. Last two digits divide by 4 = leap year but if last two digits 00 then first two digits must divide by zero for it to be a leap year... and programmers just loved it.

Jovial_John


Joined: 31/01/2009
Posts: 1024

Message Posted:
01/03/2012 07:57

The thing that saved many computers with the Millenium bug was that many IT people did not know that a century is not a leap year. I lectured to about 400 people at an NHS conference about the Millenium bug and only 2 people knew that a century is not a leap year and not one knew the 4th century rule. But fortunately 2000 was a leap year so they got away with it. Maybe Gregory 13th anticipated computers!

xylle


Joined: 01/02/2012
Posts: 92

Message Posted:
01/03/2012 08:23

An extra day in the winter just costs you 1 more day heating youe home.i bet the fuel companys love it!

Groucho



Joined: 26/04/2008
Posts: 7993

Message Posted:
01/03/2012 08:25

All centuries are leap years if the first two digits are divisible by 4. The point was that many computer programs determined leap years by dividing by 4 and querying the remainder for being > 0. If you did this function with the last two digits of 2000 (as the whole year was not stored to save space) then the divide by zero would crash the application with an error.... We had to re-program applications to fix the problem before it occurred on Jan 1st 2000.

Groucho



Joined: 26/04/2008
Posts: 7993

Message Posted:
01/03/2012 08:26

xylle...

englishman


Joined: 25/02/2012
Posts: 34

Message Posted:
01/03/2012 09:13

we have some intelligent people writing here! excellent!!!