For 73 years now, the Institute of Physics has been honoring such a year with a special colloquium, for which contributions can still be submitted until 08.02.2024.
When: Thursday, 29.02.2024 3:00 pm
Where: Lecture Halll 1, Institute of Physics
FAQ: What is a leap year?
A leap year is a year that contains an extra day to bring the calendar in line with astronomical time. A regular year has 365 days, but the actual time it takes the Earth to orbit the Sun (a so-called tropical year) is about 365.2422 days. To compensate for this discrepancy, we add an extra day every four years. This corrects the calendar and brings it closer to astronomical reality. If we did not do this, the seasons would shift over time and our calendar would no longer match the seasonal phenomena.
To find out whether a particular year is a leap year, we can apply the leap year rule:
- A year that is divisible by 4 is a leap year.
- Exception: A year that is divisible by 100 is not a leap year unless it is also divisible by 400.