Look before you leap

Hey all happy Leap day! This brings us to the cusp of March, without today we would be in March already! Well what will you do today? This day only comes once every four years, and sometimes not even then! So whatever you do make it new, because these days are but a few, just don't catch the flu! And now, I bid you all...

Adieu


For more information on Leap Year and Leap Day click the link below:
Leapin lizards

Or just read the following:

Leap day (February 29) only occurs during a Leap Year.

Leap Year occurs every four years, except for years ending in 00, in which case only if the year is divisible by 400.

So what's the possible Y2K problem with Leap Day?:

Read the rule above again. If chipmakers and programmers got the rule perfectly correct, then there will be no problem. If they only used the main rule (every four years) but neither exception, then the year 2000 will show up as a leap year, and the only problems would be for those already using the year 2100 for some reason, but the impact in this case would be minimal. If for some reason, however, the chipmakers and/or programmers were to use the main rule (every four years) and only the first exception (except every hundred years) but not the second exception (except every four hundred years), then 2000 would come up as not being a leap year. Computers would then go from February 28 directly to March 1.

Explanation: Today, February 29th, is a leap day - a relatively rare occurrence. Advised by Alexandrian astronomer Sosigenes, Roman dictator Julius Caesar, created a calender system in 46 BC that contained one leap day every four years. The reason for adding leap days was that a year - defined by the time it takes the Earth to circle the Sun - does not actually take an exact integer number of days - defined by the time it takes for the Earth to rotate once. In fact, one year by these astronomical definitions is about 365.24219 days. If all calendar years contained 365 days, they would drift from the actual year by about 1 day every 4 years. Eventually July (named posthumously for Julius Caesar himself) would occur during the northern hemisphere winter! By making most years 365 days but every fourth year 366 days, the calendar year and the actual year remained more nearly in step. This "Julian" calender system was used until the year 1582 when Pope Gregory XIII added that leap days should not occur in years ending in "00" except if divisible by 400, providing a further fine tuning. This "Gregorian" calender system is the one in most common use today.