Why Leap Day?
Leap years, with an extra day at the end of February, were invented to keep calendar years (normally 365 days long) and astronomical years (365.2425 days long) synchronized. That means leap years occur every four years on years that are divisible by 4.
Julius Caesar introduced Leap Day, with help from the Egyptians. He became convinced of the superiority of the Egyptian solar calendar, which featured 365 days and an occasional adjustment which was inserted when astronomers observed the correct conditions in the stars. Caesar made one important modification, instead of depending on the stars, they would simply add a day to every fourth year.
The math related to this adjustment is based on the number of days it takes for the Earth to complete a full revolution around the Sun, which is not a whole number. The 365 days we experience is 365.2422 days. The variance of 0.2422 days adds up with four 0.2422 days roughly equal to one full day.
And a fun fact, people born on Leap Day are called 'Leaplings'. There are only about 5 million people in the whole world who were born on February 29, and with the odds of being born on Leap Day at about 1-in-1,461, this is an elite group!
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