Leap Days May Be Going Away In the Not Too Distant Future

StartsWithABang writes: The need for a February 29th, once every four years, doesn't just give us an extra day this year, but it keeps the calendar from drifting and failing to align with the seasons. Even so, the scheme we have worked out today, where years divisible by 4 but not those divisible by 100 unless also divisible by 400 get an extra day, isn't perfect, and will get worse as time goes on. The current misalignment between our calendar and the actual Earth's orbit is big enough that we'll be off by a day every 3,200 years, but bigger news is that the Earth's rotation rate is changing, as our day lengthens and our spin slows down. In another 4 million years, we won't need leap days at all, and if we extrapolate backwards, we can find that early Earth had a day that lasted just 6.5 hours.

Comments

Not too distant future....

[raftpeople]

1 day difference in 3,200 years? Better bump this up to high priority

Re:Not too distant future....

[Austerity Empowers]

If it exceeds my expected lifespan, it is "the distant future".

I eat a lot of red meat. Tuesday is the distant future.

God must have been pretty amazing

[turning in circles]

To build the world and everything in it in 6.5 hour days. Wow.

Re:God must have been pretty amazing

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

Kind of explains the platypus, though, doesn't it?

Re:God must have been pretty amazing

[killkillkill]

I ran the math and the early Earth, 6000 years ago, did not have 6.5 hours days. Nice try, Science.

Re:4 million years == 'not too distant'

[Okian Warrior]

SINCE WHEN?

We're just about to discover a cure for aging.

Didn't you get the memo?

Re:4 million years == 'not too distant'

[neminem]

Since about 4 million years ago, clearly.

Re:4 million years == 'not too distant'

[Anonymous Coward]

When all your friends are geologists.

In another 4 million years

[Anonymous Coward]

Just so we're clear, is the last year with a leap day the year 4,000,000 or 4,002,016? Asking for a friend...

Re:Silly Calendar - Make it metric(ish)

[Obfuscant]

Why add the extra leap year day to February of all the worst of months?

This! Yeah, adding another day of winter is just so depressing. They should add the day in July, maybe next to July 4 so we could have a four or five day weekend in the summer when it is nice and sunny and warm out.

But don't worry, in a few years it will be warm and sunny in February, and you won't want another day in July when it will be unbearably hot.

and then we get a little extra at the end of the year

I think there ought to be a system where we can bank extra days if we don't want to use them and let them roll over into the next year or maybe two years later. That way, if we're having a good year we can extend it by a week or two, and if we're having a bad year we can end it early.