February 29, 2016 is Leap Day!
Poor February 29th. It’s the only day of the year that gets added and then dropped. Every 4 years, we celebrate it; the years in between, we don’t. 2016 is a leap year so this year, February has 29 days instead of 28 days. We get an extra day, but next year, it’s back to 28 days in February. Crazy!
Leap days are added to keep our calendar in alignment with the Earth’s revolution around the sun. It takes the Earth about 365.242199 days to circle the sun. Notice this is a little over 365. So if we didn’t add an extra day every 4 years, we’d lose some time. About 6 hours every year. After 100 years, our calendar would be off by 24 days!
Suspicious? You should be. Check out our Leap Year Trivia Quiz to investigate further.
- How many days long is a leap year?
- What year is the next leap year?
- If you were born on February 29, on which day would you celebrate your birthday during a non-leap year when February only has 28 days?
- If you were born in 2004, your actual age may be 12, but what is your leap year age?
- The chance of being born on a leap day (February 29) are:
A. 1 out of 24
B. 1 out of 99
C. 1 out of 1,461
D. 1 out of 1 million - People born on leap days are called:
A. Leapfrogs
B. Weirdos
C. Leaplings
D. Leap-Lips - Which famous ancient Roman ruler introduced the first leap day back in 45 BCE?
Click here for the answers! It makes me wonder – why don’t we have a July 32nd? Or another month that gets tampered with? Why February 29th?
— Ratha, STACKS Writer
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