Leap Year

A complete orbit of the earth around the sun takes exactly 365.2422 days to complete, but the Gregorian calendar uses 365 days.  As a consequence of this a leap year - where an extra day is added to the end of February every four years – reconciles the solar system's disparity with the Gregorian calendar.

So leap seconds - and leap years - are added as means of keeping our clocks (and calendars) in sync with the Earth and its seasons.

All the other months in the Julian calendar have 30 or 31 days, but February lost out to the ego of Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus.

Under his predecessor Julius Caesar, February had 30 days and the month named after him - July - had 31. August had only 29 days.

When Caesar Augustus ascended to the throne asEmperor he added two days to 'his' month to make August the same as July.

So February lost out to August in the battle of the extra days.

Happy Leap Year.