LEAP DAY: Why taking the leap every four years is so important

LYNCHBURG, Va. (WSET) — February 29th is Leap Day.

The rarest day of them all. After all, it only comes around once every four years.

But why? Why do we only add this day to the end of February once every four years? What’s the point?

For that answer, we have to head to outer space!

We’re all familiar with what a year is, astronomically speaking.

One trip, or revolution, of Earth around the sun.

Using our calendar we measure that trip taking 365 days.

BUT - scientifically speaking, that’s not accurate.

It actually takes Earth 365.24 days to make one trip around the sun.

The little extra quarter of a day of time, raises some big questions as to how we deal with it.

You see, we just can’t ignore it, and round down all the years to having 365 days.

If we did that, eventually, all the weeks and months would become very messed up.

At the same time, we can’t overcompensate for it, round up and make all the years 366 days.

If we did that, we’d have the same problem. Eventually, your weeks and months would become very different.

Thus, Leap Day is needed - but not all the time.

Only a quarter of the time.

So out of every four years, 3 of them, are normal. 365 days long.

But one of them, a quarter of the time, we add another day, February 29. Leap Day. The 366th Day to the calendar accounts for the extra quarter day of time it takes for the Earth to make one trip around the sun.