2024 is a leap year. Earth’s orbit around the sun takes about 365.25 days, which is roughly one solar year. However, our calendar consists of 365 days, so to account for this discrepancy, an extra day is added to the calendar every four years.
This adjustment is known as a leap year. In a leap year, February, which typically has 28 days, gains an extra day, making it 29 days long. This results in a total of 366 days in the leap year instead of the usual 365.
The rule for determining leap years is that if a year is evenly divisible by 4, it is a leap year. However, to keep the calendar year from drifting too far ahead of the solar year, years divisible by 100 are not leap years unless they are also divisible by 400.
This exception accounts for the slightly shorter duration of Earth’s orbit.
For example:-
- 2000 was a leap year because it is divisible by 400.
- 1900 was not a leap year because it is divisible by 100 but not by 400.
Applying this rule, the year 2024 is divisible by 4, so it is a leap year, aligning our calendar with the Earth’s orbit and maintaining the synchronization of our timekeeping system with the astronomical year.
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