Will leap year always occur every four years?

Answer 1

No. The year is only a leap year if it is divisible by 4. However, it is divisible by 100, it must also be divisible by 400 to be a leap year. For example, 2000 was a leap year, but 1900 was not. So 1896 was a leap year and the next leap year was 8 years later, in 1904. 2096 will be a leap year, but 2100 will not be and next will be 2104, so again there is a gap of 8 years. So it is usually, but not always a 4 year gap.

Answer 2

the earth travels around the sun every 365 1/4 days. and 1/4 + 1/4 + 1/4 + 1/4 = 1 whole. so, every 4 years there has to be an extra day because of the 1 whole day.
The Earth takes 365.24 days to go around the Sun exactly once. If the year were 365 days every year, our calendar would get out of synchronization with the seasons. April would stop being a spring month in the northern hemisphere, and would slide slowly into winter; over a few hundred years, December would move back into summer.

To keep the calendar matched up with the seasons, we have "leap years" that add one day to the calendar every 4 years.

Some cultures don't worry about leap years; in those societies, it doesn't matter what season the months are. So the Islamic calendar, for example, is a lunar calendar without any "leap months", and the holidays move from season to season over the course of the years.
Because, at the end of Feb. 28, there's always 6 hours left over, and after 4 years, the 6 is multiplied by 4 (because of the four years passing) and a new full day is created. Feb. 29. The next few leap years are:

2016

2020

2024

2028

2032

2036

2040

2044

2048

2052

2056

2060

Well, that was a bit more than a few, but never mind...
An accurate measurement of time for one full rotation of earth around the sun is 365.25 days, still approximately. What do we do with the extra .25 days if our calendar had only 365 days? We add them up every 4 years and make a full day out of it in Feb, to make it a leap year.
There is a leap year because each year is about 365.25 days so after every four years another day is added.
The Earth does not revolve around the sun in exactly 365 days. It actually takes 365.25. Hence, for 4 revolutions, the Earth takes (365x4)+1 day. to compensate for this +1 day, we add one day every 4 years.

This is done to avoid things like Christmas gradually drifting through the seasons. It took 100s of years to figure this out.
because every year there is still a quarter left when it is 4 years the quarters add up to one day so thats why there are leap years every 4 years
A leap year (or intercalary or bissextile year) is a year containing one additional day (or, in the case of lunisolar calendars, a month) in order to keep the calendar year synchronized with theastronomical or seasonal year.[1] Because seasons and astronomical events do not repeat in a whole number of days, a calendar that had the same number of days in each year would, over time, drift with respect to the event it was supposed to track. By occasionally inserting (or intercalating) an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected. A year that is not a leap year is called a common year.

For example, in the Gregorian calendar (a common solar calendar), February in a leap year has 29 days instead of the usual 28, so the year lasts 366 days instead of the usual 365. Similarly, in theHebrew calendar (a lunisolar calendar), a 13th lunar month is added seven times every 19 years to the twelve lunar months in its common years to keep its calendar year from drifting through the seasons too rapidly.
There are different kinds of "year" based upon what recurring event you are tracking.... for example, a Sidereal Year is the time it takes for the earth to come around in alignment with some constellation. Whereas what the normal calendar tracks is called the Tropical Year... which is the time it takes for the sun to be in the same relation to latitude due to the Earth's axial tilt.
This measurement of time is relevant to the seasons... to planting and such, and so it's the more important kind of year to keep track of... the Sidereal year does not match up with the tropical year, which is why the constellations of the Zodiac no longer align with their astrological signs...


The earth spins on its axis at specific rate that changes very minutely over time and has no direct relation to the length of the year. That is, a Tropical Year is not evenly divisible by the 24 hours it takes the earth to turn...
Because a year is not really 365 days long... it is actually 365.2425 days... the Tropical calendar is off by about 1 quarter day, every year.
To keep the days of the calendar from getting out of sync with the Earth's actual revolution around the sun, every four years they add ONE DAY to the calendar.

0.2425 times 4 is almost one whole day.

At other times they add leap minutes and even leap seconds to the calendar to achieve even finer re-alignments of calendar time to Solar position.


All such adjustments are meant to ensure that the vernal and autumnal equinox and winter and summer solstice occur on the same date, year after year.
To keep our calendar in alignment with the earth's revolutions around the sun.

The year is not exactly 365 days long. It is closer to 365.242 days. This means that around every 4 years, there has been an extra day or that the Earth is further around the Sun than it should be. We add a day to the calendar to bring this back into balance.

You can imagine that if we didn't, after 180 years, the seasons would be reversed and we would have winter in summer and vice versa.

Having a leap year every 4 years, however, is not strictly accurate. In order to balance the calendar properly, there is a leap year every 4 year unless that year is also divisible by 100. But this is cancelled if this year is also divisible by 400.

For these reasons. 2000 (which is divisible by 4 and 400) was a leap year but the year 1900 (divisible by 4 but also 100) wasn't.
there are actually 364 days and 18 hours a year, with 6 hours extra till 365. since there are 24 hours a day, we get an extra day since within four years there will be 24 hours extra (6 times 4) and get an extra day every 4 years
The vernal equinox is time when the sun is directly above the Earth's equator, appearantly moving from the southern to the northern hemisphere. The mean time between two successive vernal equinoxes is called a tropical year, and it is about 365.2422 days long. Using a calendar with 365 days would result in an error of 0.2422 days or almost 6 hours per year. After 100 years, this calendar would be more than 24 days ahead of the seasons (tropical year), which is not a desirable situation. It is desirable to align the calendar with the seasons, and make the difference as small as possible. By adding leap years approximately every 4th year, this difference between the calendar and the seasons can be reduced significantly, and the calendar will follow the seasons much more closely than without leap years. (One day is here used in the sense of "mean solar day", which is the mean time between two transits of the sun across the meridian of the observer.)

Source:

http://www.timeanddate.com/date/leapyear.html because the earth takes 365.25 days to go round the sun, every four years the .25 days add up and give the extra day A year is actually 356 days and six hours long. So, every four years, we just add together the past extra hours to make Febuary 29th.
The Earth takes 365.24 days to go around the Sun exactly once. If the year were 365 days every year, our calendar would get out of synchronization with the seasons. April would stop being a spring month in the northern hemisphere, and would slide slowly into winter; over a few hundred years, December would move back into summer.

To keep the calendar matched up with the seasons, we have "leap years" that add one day to the calendar every 4 years.

Some cultures don't worry about leap years; in those societies, it doesn't matter what season the months are. So the Islamic calendar, for example, is a lunar calendar without any "leap months", and the holidays move from season to season over the course of the years.

Answer 3

Usually, but if a year is divisible by 100, but not 400, then it is not a leap year. So for example, 2000 was a leap year, but 1900 was not and neither will 2100, 2200 or 2300. 2400 will be a leap year.

Answer 4

Yes. The earth rotates completely around the sun every 365 1/4 days

Well, not really. ....

One of the common misconceptions - one just stated above - is that a leap year occurs every four years. The Julian calendar, created by Julius Caesar in 45 BC, provided for a leap year every for years. However, this creates an error every 128 years since the orbital length of the Earth about the Sun is not exactly 365.25. The present orbit of the Earth requires approximately 365.242199 days. (As the Earth's orbit is gradually slowing down, the length of a true (or tropical year) will gradually increase.

Two problems arose as a result of the discrepancy between the Julian calendar year and the actual tropical year. By the late 1500s, the Julian calendar was off by about 10 days. As a result, calendars that were used to approximate planting times were at odds with nature itself. A revision was needed.

For the Catholic Church, the issue was the affixing of religious holidays. For example, December 25th, the day assigned as the birth of Jesus, was in fact "moving" through the year. By the 1500s, it was now 10 days off. To correct these and other "holiday errors", Pope Gregory ordered a revision of the Julian Calendar. These changes went into effect in 1582 and resulted in the "elimination" of 10 calendar days in October 1582.

The change was modest, but profound in its consequences. Rather than have a leap year every four years, as the Julian Calendar prescribed, the Gregorian Calendar made a crucial correction. For those years divisible by 400, (1600, 2000, 2400), no leap year would occur. Thus, there was no 29 February 1600. Nor was there a 29 February 2000.

Yet, given the divisions at the time, the change was only adopted by those entities loyal to Catholicism. Thus, it was possible to find within Germany different villages using different calendars. The Protestant world was slow to recognize the changes ordered by Pope Gregory. Equally adamant in their opposition was the Greek Orthodox church.

As a result, the Russian Revolution is referred to in Russia as the October Revolution, when, according to the Gregorian Calendar, it didn't occur until November. Eventually, the Orthodox church adopted a revision to the Julian calendar that is similar to, but does not exactly agree with the Gregorian revision. In essence this change meant that in order to keep the calendar accurate, some of the years equally divisible by 100 are not leap years according to the official Julian Calendar. The next year divisible by 4 that will not be a leap year is 2,800 A.D.

Still, the Orthodox Christmas and the Catholic Christmas occur at different dates (December versus January). But, now two of the main branches of Christianity have until 2400 to come to an agreement with respect to the future. According to the Gregorian Calendar, there will be no 29 February 2400, while the modified Julian Calendar used by the Orthodox stipulates that there shall be. Oy ve!

Given the divisions within Christendom, the year 2000 was the first time the so-called non-leap century was observed by a majority of Christians. Since the Gregorian Calendar is also a widely recognized marker internationally, most of the world observed the no 29 February in 2000. Of course, there are other calendars: Persian, Jewish and Chinese, to name just a few. But, that's another issue entirely!

Answer 5

For people who use the Julian calendar, yes, a leap year day always occurs every four years.
The Julian calendar was introduced by Julius Caesar in the year we now call "46 BC".
The Julian calendar is still used today (as of 2009) in most Orthodox Christian churches.

For people who use the Gregorian calendar, a leap year day usually occurs once every four years, but occasionally there is a gap of 8 years between leap year days.
Since Pope Gregory introduced a calendar we now call "the Gregorian calendar" in 1582 AD, there have been several cases of a "skipped" leap year day, with 8 years between leap year days: The years 1700, 1800, 1900, and 2100 are not leap years.

For people who use the Solar Hejri calendar, a leap year day usually occurs once every four years, but occasionally there is a gap of 5 years between leap year days.

Answer 6

The real length of the year is approximately (but not exactly) 365 1/4 days. Having years of 365 days makes the year too short. To keep up with the real length of the year, while at the same time maintaining an integer number of days, an extra day is added every 4 years.

Answer 7

Because it takes the earth 365 and a quarter days to rotate around the sun. To make up for this quarter of a day, every four years one day is added into the calender on in the shortest month... February.

Answer 8

Because one year is approximately 365 1/4 (365.25) days long. Each 4th year we need to add one extra day to make it equal. The exact duration of one year is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds.

The Earth orbits around the sun every 365.25 days, not just 365, so after four years, the 0.25 of a days adds on an extra day. So every four years, there is 366 days in a year. Without the extra day in February, soon our calendars would be off by almost a month. Some leap years to come include 2016, 2020, 2024, 2028, 2032

The way I remember this is from the "4" in "1/4"<-- (it matches-4 and 4)

It is actually incorrect to say a leap year is "every" four years. The word "every" means "without exception" (unless exceptions are stated) i.e. 1896 was a leap year but 1900 wasn't, likewise 2096 will be a leap year but 2100 won't be. The skipping of leap years (three centuries out of four) is to compensate for the 21 minutes and fourteen seconds that actual years are just short of being 365 and a quarter days long. For an interesting (IMHO) analysis of the situation, search (or Google) for "spr 11-60903" or "Leap Year Complaint".

Answer 9

No, the next one will be in 2012 but they don't happen in century years like 2100.