No more leap year?

[David Kelly]

I was browsing cnn.com and came across this article that baffled me. Apparently the Earth is no longer behind and the 'leap second' no longer is correct. Does this mean that we wont need leap year anymore? Scientists cant even figure this one out....


http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science....ap/index.html

[Mike Schroeder]

No, i dont think so, because it takes 365 1/4 days for the earth to travel around the sun, so ever 4 years they decided to take those 4 1/4 and just make an extra day out of it. the earth spinning "on time" will probobly not affect this

[David Kelly]

Originally Posted by Big Mike

No, i dont think so, because it takes 365 1/4 days for the earth to travel around the sun, so ever 4 years they decided to take those 4 1/4 and just make an extra day out of it. the earth spinning "on time" will probobly not affect this

But according to that article, the Earth is now spinning at the correct speed and not slow and behind by a 1/4 of a day.

Originally Posted by Big Mike

No, i dont think so, because it takes 365 1/4 days for the earth to travel around the sun, so ever 4 years they decided to take those 4 1/4 and just make an extra day out of it. the earth spinning "on time" will probobly not affect this

Thank you Dr. Big Mike, our expert



That article is kinda screwy, im not sure what to think of it. So if they drop leap year, do all the leap year babies go out of existance?

[KenWittlief]

the article doesnt say that leap year is no longer needed, only leap seconds.

Leap year is requied because the earth orbits the sun every ~365 days + 6 hours. If there were no more days added to the calender every 4 years, then eventually christmas would be in july

leap seconds are needed because we defined hours minutes and seconds relative to the rotation of the earth, not its orbit around the sun. When they standardized on atomic time, the second was not exactly one day / 24 / 60 / 60 - it was slightly off - about one second per year

so if they didnt add leap seconds eventaully the sun would be rising at noon according to official Coordinated Universal Time

so the earth is spinning on its axis a little bit slower, but its not orbiting the sun any faster (not enough to make up for that 6 hours per year - that would be a huge shift!)

I heard a theory that the speed of light in not actaully a constant - as the universe expands the speed of light slows down. Since the atomic clocks are a function of the speed of light (particle physics) but the spin of the earth is not, maybe this is an indication of that?

[shyra1353]

i havent read the article yet .. but all i can say is .. they CANT take away leap year .. what would happen to all of us who are born on it ??? when would my birthday be then ?? NOOOOOOOOOOO... leap year must stay ... at least until im 16 and can drive ...

[Jeff Waegelin]

Originally Posted by shyra1353

i havent read the article yet .. but all i can say is .. they CANT take away leap year .. what would happen to all of us who are born on it ??? when would my birthday be then ?? NOOOOOOOOOOO... leap year must stay ... at least until im 16 and can drive ...

Well, if you were born on February 29, you've technically only had, what, 3 birthdays, then? So, does that make you only 3 years old?

[shyra1353]

Originally Posted by Jeff Waegelin

Well, if you were born on February 29, you've technically only had, what, 3 birthdays, then? So, does that make you only 3 years old?

technically .. but i have been alive for 15 years .. but if they do take away leap year how would i explain how old i am? do i go " i am 3 years old but i was born ( this many ) years ago ?? "

back in 1999 there was the rumour that would be no leap year in 2000 and all i could think was how i would explain that one .. " i have been around for 15 years but i have only had 2 birthdays ... "