What Is a Leap Year?
1. 365 and a Quarter Days in a Year
Non-leap years have 365 days. Except, that is not entirely true, regardless of how many days our calendars might show. The exact number of days that we have each year is 365 and a quarter or, to be even more precise, 365.24219. This presents a problem because our calendars don’t represent the correct amount of time it takes our planet to complete a single orbit of the sun. Using 366 days would not work either because it would be too many. If it were not for leap years, each season would start a day earlier every four years when using a calendar with 365 days.
