Leap Year Special

Written by Sam Nieves

Can you imagine living in a world where almost a month of days are skipped? How about living with unpredictable seasons? Imagine it being March 1st when it’s supposed to be March 25th. Can you imagine catching waves when you’re supposed to be huddled in a blanket? Trying to grow corn but it’s the middle of winter in July?

You’re in luck- Leap Day is there to prevent that from happening!

What is a leap year? A leap year comes every four years to catch up with the rotation of the Earth and our seasons. It’s the reason we can predict our summers and our winters, and in the olden days, this was used to help predict crop harvest.

The Earth, in a typical non-leap year, takes 365 days, plus 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds according to NASA. So, nearly 365 days and 6 hours. Nearly.

But why is it really that important? It turns out, four years has the equivalent amount of days of (365 * 4) - 1. That’s why that extra day is needed, otherwise we’d be a day behind next year, and in the next hundred years, 24 days behind. In 700 years, the Northern Hemisphere would be going through summer in December.

Personally, I’m way too conditioned to see a summer outside of June through August, but I think I would enjoy a March with Autumn weather, wouldn’t you?

How’re you going to use that extra day this year? Choose wisely! You could even use it for something as cool as submitting to Sugar Pine’s seventh volume.