Why were 1700, 1800 and 1900 not leap years?

[SunnyD]

It just doesn't make sense to me. This gregorian calandar thing is just idiotic. Of course so is Daylight Savings Time.

 

[RichieZ]

because they are divisible by 100 and not 400, yes it is stupid

 

[vtqanh]

Originally posted by: SunnyD
It just doesn't make sense to me. This gregorian calandar thing is just idiotic. Of course so is Daylight Savings Time.

because we overcompensate a little bit every time we have a leap year.

 

[Freeze]

It has something to do with the fact that there are 365.2625 (or something like that - not sure on the real value here) actual days in a year. Basically, every 100 years (with the leap year) there is a surplus of .25 days - not enough for a full day yet. So on the 400th year, they have a leap year to compensate.

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

Leap years all there because a year isn't precisely an integer number of days. So every time we're getting too far from the correct date we throw in a leap year to bring things back in sync. That's the short explanation anyway.

 

[TuxDave]

I wonder how well people would take if we took the very last day of the year and just shortened it to 23hours, and whatever minutes. That way we can skip this entire leap year thing.

 

[flxnimprtmscl]

Originally posted by: TuxDave
I wonder how well people would take if we took the very last day of the year and just shortened it to 23hours, and whatever minutes. That way we can skip this entire leap year thing.

You're going the wrong way. We'd need to add time to the day. Not take time away.

 

[CubicZirconia]

Originally posted by: flxnimprtmscl

Originally posted by: TuxDave
I wonder how well people would take if we took the very last day of the year and just shortened it to 23hours, and whatever minutes. That way we can skip this entire leap year thing.

You're going the wrong way. We'd need to add time to the day. Not take time away.

That would be a hassle anyways. No one would know when to celebrate new years.

 

[MAME]

Originally posted by: TuxDave
I wonder how well people would take if we took the very last day of the year and just shortened it to 23hours, and whatever minutes. That way we can skip this entire leap year thing.

wtf? worst idea ever. You'd have to reset your clocks

 

[brxndxn]

Originally posted by: CubicZirconia

Originally posted by: flxnimprtmscl

Originally posted by: TuxDave
I wonder how well people would take if we took the very last day of the year and just shortened it to 23hours, and whatever minutes. That way we can skip this entire leap year thing.

You're going the wrong way. We'd need to add time to the day. Not take time away.

That would be a hassle anyways. No one would know when to celebrate new years.

Uh guys.. the day and night time of 24 hours does not change when you just go out an say "let's throw some time over here or there blah blah". Leap year compensates for Earth's orientation around the sun. If you have a bunch of years go by without a leap year, you have summer in fall (or fall in summer) depending on which way it goes.

 

[flxnimprtmscl]

Originally posted by: brxndxn

Originally posted by: CubicZirconia

Originally posted by: flxnimprtmscl

Originally posted by: TuxDave
I wonder how well people would take if we took the very last day of the year and just shortened it to 23hours, and whatever minutes. That way we can skip this entire leap year thing.

You're going the wrong way. We'd need to add time to the day. Not take time away.

That would be a hassle anyways. No one would know when to celebrate new years.

Uh guys.. the day and night time of 24 hours does not change when you just go out an say "let's throw some time over here or there blah blah". Leap year compensates for Earth's orientation around the sun. If you have a bunch of years go by without a leap year, you have summer in fall (or fall in summer) depending on which way it goes.

Yes, I think most of us get that

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

i say we save up our leap days, and throwone massive party every 25 years.

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: HomeBrewerDude
i say we save up our leap days, and throwone massive party every 25 years.

Hahaha, yeah, do 2025 over again. The first time is just a party, the second time you fix all your fvck ups

 

[alaniscool]

It's the specification in the Gregorian calendar system.