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Why is there a leap day?

Why is there a leap day?

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Asked by J. Pollock, Last updated: Nov 09, 2024

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Christian Jackson

Christian Jackson

Christian Jackson
Christian Jackson, Content Developer, Austin

Answered Sep 14, 2018

The standard calendar that is used all over the world has a common year and a leap year. A common year has 365 days and a leap year 366 days, the extra day is the 29th of February. Leap year occurs once in 4 years, this helps to synchronize the calendar year with the solar year. It takes the Earth 365 1/4 days to complete its orbit around the sun, this clarifies why we have one extra day in four years.

The solar year is actually 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes and 45 seconds. To correct this discrepancy, 1 day is removed in every 100 years. The leap year is omitted 3 times in 400 years. That's why years like 1700, 1800 and 2100 are not leap years.

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