Why Do We Have a Leap Year in 2020?
It’s a Leap Year which means we have an extra day in 2020. Its been four years since February has had 29 days on the calendar and there’s a very simple, yet scientific explanation for that.
In order for our twelve month calendar to stay aligned with the astronomical seasons, we need to add an extra day every four years. It takes approximately 365.25 days for Earth to complete one revolution around the sun.
Without adding a Leap Day, the calendar would be off by 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 45 seconds more each year and after a 100 years, the seasons would be off by 25 days, almanac.com reports. To make up for that .25 difference, adding Leap Day is the only way to realign the calendar.
Luckily, Planetary Scientist, Dr. James O’Donoghue, shared the video below which will help everyone understand why 2020 is in fact a Leap Year. With about 5 million people around the world being born on February 29, the odds of being a Leap Day baby is about 1 in 1,461.
This is why we have Leap Years pic.twitter.com/bCX31kymMW
— Dr James O'Donoghue (@physicsJ) February 6, 2020
