Why do we have leap years? Paul Sutter breaks down timekeeping and uncovers the science behind leap years. He explores how leap years, introduced every four years, play a crucial role in aligning our calendar with the Earth's orbit around the sun. Without them, our seasons would gradually drift out of sync, leading to unexpected shifts in weather patterns and holiday celebrations.
Short Science: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxeUBLGfcIB9dB6n8zqwu_w2vG6DmLsKy
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Why do
we have leap years? Well, we all know that
a day is 24 hours long, a year is 365 days. But what does that
actually mean? A day
is supposed to be, you know, the amount of time it takes for the sun to come to the same
position on the sky. It's nearly 24 hours, but not exactly
24 hours. And so there's
a mismatch between what we call
a day on our watches and our clocks and what the sun
is actually doing. What the rotation of the Earth
is actually doing. And that little mismatch just slowly, s
lowly builds
up and up and up. And if we let it
go out of control, then we get all sorts
of crazy things after enough centuries, like we're celebrating Christmas when it's like
80 degrees out. And so we like to have
our calendar synchronized
with our seasons. So that October always
feels like fall and, you know, Christmas always happens
in the winter. We like to line
things up. So that's why
we have to introduce leap years
just so we can, you know, get
things back on track.
Comments
Maybe Austrailia would love to have a Summer in July once in a while? Or maybe a Christmas with Snow...
This is an inaccurate explanation. The earth takes slightly more than 365 days to go around the sun once - about a quarter of a day more actually. So every after 4 years those quarter days add up and we add it to the calendar as a leap day. It isn't a collection of all the seconds between the 24hrs and the actual rotation of the earth (about 4 sec/day) That math doesn't even add up - 4sec/day * 365days/year * 4years = 5,840 sec which is much less than the number of seconds in a day - 86,400sec
Omg, we should have clocks that mimick the sun's position. So let's say 12oclock on the clock is the position of the sun when its just emerged, and we go from there. Instead of being like "let's meet at 3pm" we say like "let's meet when the sun is closer to mars". Or just a clock with degrees, and the position of the sun instead of the numbers we use.
Wow isnt it cool how the longer you exist the better you comprehend the passage of time and the movement of the solar system threw space and how short time actually is and how we progress in a ??? Does time go forward or downward like gravity pulls us down in a spiral like the fibonachi sequence and the shape of a Nautilus in nature. Like the shape we find inside a snail shell. Time is soooo slow as it is short. We think the clock is not moving fast enough like it looks like the clock is standing still. Yet we a flying threw space on a ball spinning at a thousand miles an hour all the while the ball and solar system is actually moving threwout of a galaxy inside a giant Dark Energy gas cloud with so much dust, debris and plasma! All falls down like Toy Soldiers.
I heard we're supposed to have 13, months as we have 13 constellations. Don't listen to this guys. ☠️ Not because I said so though.
Couldnt we just change how long time measurements are so it perfectly matches?
You failed to explain what it is. You just explained the cause and effect. What leap year is, is a correction or realignment of what we call time, which isn’t real, and reality, which just is.
The fact that you don't like it, has no meaning.