Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country | Founded 05-05-05

Leaping Around the Pesky Problem of Time in a Year

Story by Corinne Saunders

Decimal numbers, as it turns out, are not just a pesky problem confined to schoolchildren’s homework woes.

The 365.242216 days in a solar year—the length of time it takes Earth to complete one orbit around the sun—is a number that has been exasperating civilizations for centuries.

More than one great thinker along the way has added his ideas to synchronize the calendar as closely as possible with the 365 days, five hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds of the solar year.

The current pattern of 365-day common years and 366-day leap years that occur generally every fourth year, can trace its roots way back.

The Egyptians are credited as the first civilization to modify their calendar by adding an extra, or intercalary, day every fourth year in an attempt to stay on track with the solar year. Eventually, the Romans would incorporate the same practice into their calendar.

The early Romans originally had a 355-day calendar and they tried to keep up with the seasons by adding a 22- or 23-day month at the end of every second year or so. They were inconsistent in adding this month, though, and by Emperor Julius Caesar’s time, the seasons were out of synch with those of previous calendar years.

Caesar’s astronomer performed some calculations and these led Caesar to making the calendar 365 days long: he did away with the extra month and added one or sometimes two days to the end of several months.

This Julian calendar, introduced in 45 B.C., utilized the intercalary system that the Egyptians had also employed; Caesar intended to insert a day once every four years at the end of Februarius, which was the last month of their year.

The intercalary day was said to have been mistakenly inserted once every three years instead, so Roman time was still different from the solar year until around 4 A.D., when Emperor Augustus Caesar supposedly changed it to the originally planned once every four years.

Augustus Caesar stole a day from February when he got a month named after him to make his month as long as Julius’; this shortened February to its current 29 days on leap years.

However, imprecise decimals continued their assault on the calendar. The Julian calendar had made the average year 365.25 days—much closer to the actual solar year—but the end result was 11 minutes and 14 seconds longer than the solar year.

The extra minutes added up over the centuries: in the 16th century, the vernal equinox fell around March 11 instead of March 21.

Pope Gregory XIII moved the calendar date ahead and also tweaked the leap year system, declaring that century years (1600, 1700, etc.) were only leap years if they were divisible by 400. This omitted three leap years out of every 400 years and the Gregorian calendar was thus born in 1582, with its century leap year rule marking the only difference between it and the Julian calendar.

Most of the world has followed the Gregorian calendar ever since, with its average year of 365.2425 days relatively close to the actual solar year.

Only half a minute apart, it will take an estimated 3,300 years for the calendar year to pull a full day ahead of the solar year, and by then, the irritating decimal problem will have been passed on to someone else.

Belk Leap Year Series Begins on Leap Day

The Belk Leap Year Series at ASU, sponsored by the Richard T. Barker Friends of the University Library, will begin on February 29.

Experts will discuss the unique collections, special projects and initiatives of the Carol Grotnes Belk Library & Information Commons, and wine, hot tea and light refreshments will be served at each event.

A program entitled “From Hollinger Box to Hard Drive: Digitizing Special Collections” will be held from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. on Friday, February 29.

In this program, ASU Special Collections librarians and archivists will discuss the creation of “Documenting Appalachia,” the new digital library of primary sources from the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection and the University Archives.

On Thursday, March 27, noted shape note singer Charles Isley and Special Collections Reference Archivist Greta Browning will present a program on shape note singing and shape note hymnals.

On Thursday, April 18, Bettie Bond, Don Saunders and Chuck Watkins will present a

program titled “Museums in Our Future?.”

All programs will run from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. and will be held in Room 421 of the library.

Please RSVP for each program to Lynn Patterson at pattersondl@appstate.edu or call 828-262-2087.

Want To Go?

Date: Friday, February 29
Time: 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Location: Belk Library Room 421
Cost: Free