What is a leap year?
1Read
The Earth takes about 365 and a quarter days to go around the Sun once. But our calendar year has only 365 days. Every year, we fall a quarter of a day behind.
After four years, we are a whole day behind. To fix this, every fourth year we add one extra day — 29 February. A year with 366 days is called a leap year.
The rule has a twist. A quarter day is not exactly right, so years ending in 00 are leap years only if they can be divided by 400. The year 2000 was a leap year; 1900 was not; 2100 will not be.
Without leap years, the seasons would slowly drift. After a few hundred years, Onam would arrive in winter.
2Words to learn
3Check your understanding
4Explain it
Speaking challenge
Explain to a friend why we need leap years and what would happen without them.
Say it out loud. Nobody is listening — that’s the point. Mistakes are allowed.