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

Posted by yaelk on from the happy-leap-year dept.

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.

8 of 165 comments (clear)

  1. 4 million years == 'not too distant' by Ann+O'Nymous-Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    SINCE WHEN?

    1. Re:4 million years == 'not too distant' by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 5, Funny

      SINCE WHEN?

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

      Didn't you get the memo?

    2. Re:4 million years == 'not too distant' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      When all your friends are geologists.

  2. Re:God must have been pretty amazing by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 5, Funny

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

  3. Not too distant future? by nwaack · · Score: 5, Insightful

    False. I feel like I just got click-baited.

  4. In another 4 million years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    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...

  5. If a day is 6.5h... by walkermc20 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...then dinosaurs would "weigh" around 4.5% less than they should at today's gravity. Totally explains why they all died...as the earth started slowing, they eventually became too heavy to survive and all sank into the earth to become fossils. Quick! Get me some paper! I'm publishing a new textbook!

  6. Whiplash by thegarbz · · Score: 5, Informative

    I was just thinking that the new owners cleaned up a bit, and we hadn't seen this abusive clickbaiter in a while. Alas, not so.

    Whiplash please check out StartsWithABang's stats.
    0 posts on Slashdot
    500+ attempted submissions.
    125 submissions actually made it to the front page.
    100% of submissions are links to his own blog on forbes and previously medium.
    Nearly all of his slashdot submissions have comments that are primarily complaints about his garbage posts, clickbait summaries, incorrect science, and the fact he uses slashdot as a personal advertising platform.

    I'm not asking you to do anything about it other than read his previous submission comments and draw your own conclusions.