Today is February 29th and is a very special day. It is a leap year! We will have 366 days in 2016, and not the usual 365 due to an extra day being added.
Leap year happens once every four years. It was implemented in order to sync the solar and calendar year.
Why?
The solar year is nature’s way of incorporating time. Without getting too technical, a solar year is the period of time it takes Earth to orbit the sun. This amount of time is not exactly 365 or 366 days. It is roughly 365.25 and having a .25 day is not possible or logical. Based on human interpretation of time, our calendar – the Gregorian – was adapted, but it was out of sync to the solar year. The extra day was added to help sort out the difference.
Fun Fact: Most people may not notice a leap year, but there are about 187,000 people born on February 29th.
How do you feel about leap year? Let us know in the comments.