Tag Archives: leap year

Why we have leap days

It’s been awhile since I posted and just wanted to link to a few interesting articles that I recently read.

Here’s the first one:

When I was a kid, I had a friend whose birthday was on February 29th. I used to rib him that he was only 3 years old, and he would visibly restrain himself from punching me. Evidently he heard that joke a lot.

Of course, he was really 12. But since February 29th is a leap day, it only comes once every four years.

And why is it only a quadrennial event?

Duh. Astronomy!

Continue reading on Discover Magazine