Leap Year

It is now 29th February, the day which occurs only once every four years. Quite amazing. It reminds me of Daylight Saving Time (DST) where an extra hour occurs in one of the days.

February 29th 2008 is also a Leap Day which occurs only once every 28 years. A Leap Day is one where the day of the week which 29th February occurs on is the same as the day of the week in a previous Leap Year. Well, that means every Leap Year's 29th February will have its own Leap Day turn.

Do you know why Leap Year occurs? I believe the reason is similar to why there is DST, only that we don't adjust our calendar back one day as in DST.

Using a calendar with 365 days every year would result in a loss of 0.2422 days, or almost six hours per year. After 100 years, this calendar would be more than 24 days ahead of the season (tropical year), which is not desirable or accurate. It is desirable to align the calendar with the seasons and to make any difference as insignificant as possible.

By adding a leap year approximately every fourth year, the difference between the calendar and the seasons can be reduced significantly, and the calendar will align with the seasons much more accurately.

Taken from timeanddate.com

Learn more about the Leap Year here and here.

Couple of people I know are going to watch the show The Leap Years, which will be shown in cinemas today. I'm afraid I don't quite see what's so special about it. It's a romance and I don't really believe in spending money on watching romantic films.

Hmm, I wonder if there will actually be women who propose to men on this day, or if there will be more proposals/marriages on this day in general. Then their marriage anniversary will only occurs once every 4 years?!

Leap Year. Stupid hamster escaped again, ran into my room, skidded across my room and is right now taking refuge in the packed storeroom. Brother is cursing the hamster and telling it not-so-gently to f***ing come out if not its babies will die. Ok, I'm going to join him in waiting for the hamster to come out.

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Hamster ran into container of food and got captured. -_-''' Greedy hamster.