Leap Year Discussion Project Math

By: Jasper S.

30/09/2011

As we all know, the Earth revolves around the sun. While doing so it rotates on its own axis (at a 35 degree angle). A year is the time it takes to revolve once around the sun. A day is the time it takes for the Earth to rotate once on its axis. The Earth rotates about 365.242374 times in the time that it takes to revolve once around the sun. So one astronomical year has 365.242374 days. So if every calendar only had 365 days the calendar would (in the long run) drift out of line with the astronomical year and the seasons would shift their places in the year. As we have approximately 365.25 days per year we add one extra day every 4 years. With this extra day there are 1,461 days in four years. Without this day the calendars would be incorrect. 365.25 4 = 1461 365 4 = 1460. So again the average number of days a year in this case is 365.25 or, again the calendar would be out of line with the astronomical year. Now you can see that the calendar is very close to the astronomical year but then a bit ahead of the astronomical year by a hundredth of a day (the year is approx. 365.24 days long but, to sustain an ordered calendar, we round it up to 365.25). This is not a lot but will increase over time and the calendar will be incorrect yet again. So each hundred years there is no leap year, so 1900 and 1800 was no leap year. The number of days in 100 years is 36,500 (365 100). Number of leap years per 100 years = 24 (100 4 = 25 1 (The one from the 100th year)). 36,500 + 24 = 36,524 days per 100 years. The average number of days in this case would be 36,524 100 = 365.24 Now the calendar is even closer to the astronomical year but now the calendar is slightly too short (Calendar = 365.24 Astronomical year = 365.242375). To correct this we need to increase the number of leap years. So if the year number is devisable by 400 there is a leap year, regardless if the year is devisable by 100. The number of days in 400 years is 146,000 (365 400). Number of leap years in a 400 year period = 98 ( 400 4 = 100 - 3 (the ones from the 100th, 200th and 300th year(s)) = 97 + 1 (the one from the 400th year) = 98. 146,000 + 98 = 146,098 days per 400 years. The average number of days per 400 years would be 146,098 400 = 365.245 The difference between the number of days in the calendar now and the number of days in an astronomical year is 0.002626 (365.245 - 365.242374). For this calendar it will take approx 380.8973115 years for the difference between the calendar and the astronomical year to expand to one day (1 0.002626) And for it to expand to one year it will take 139119.8 years. In Greece it is considered bad luck to hold a marriage in a leap year. It is estimated that one in five couples in Greece will avoid having their wedding on a leap year. It would be pointless to be more precise with the calendar because this is accurate enough by far; with this ''far'' off the calendar still needs 380 years to step one day out of line with the astronomical year and about 140 000 years to step a year out of line. I suppose that they probably will add another rule saying that every 380 years there is no leap year to compromise for the one day. As you can see it is not such a big deal.

Leap Year Discussion Project Math

By: Jasper S.

30/09/2011

Mars rotates approx. 669.59 times on its own axis while it revolves once around the sun once. Since this number is closer to 670 than 699 a standard year should have 670 days and another year should have 699 days. To have an average of 699.59 days per year there have to be 6 long (670 days) years and 4 short (699 days) years in every ten (6 + 4) years ((6 670) + (4 699) = 6696. 6696 10 (years) = 669.6 days (as an average) per year). The order of these years does not matter ( as it all sums up to the same amount of days in 10 years) but it would be easier (for the population of mars) to have the first 6 to be long years and the last 4 to be short years. Because of this delay with Mars's calendar at this moment and its astronomical year of 0.01 days, every 100th year (0.01 100 = 1.00) will have to skip one day because, over a period of 100 years, the calendar is one day ahead of the astronomical year.