Leaplings or babies born on Feb 29 can have a whacko sense of age
Frederic, a young bright boy, was sent off to join a band of pirates. These pirates were the nice, tender hearted sorts. When they robbed ships, they’d first say ‘pretty please’. They were really nice to Frederic, treated him well, gave him food and kept him in good humour.
Frederic’s apprenticeship with the band of pirates ended when he turned twenty-one. He went about traveling to different places trying to see what he might like to do for a living. He landed in New York, where he met an army of soldiers. Frederic liked their shining armour and bright uniforms and thought he’d join the army. And so he did. Soon he met the Major General Stanley and his daughter Mabel. As all fairy tales of this sort go, Mabel and Frederic liked each other and wanted to marry.
But…but…but
Frederic discovered that he was born on Feb 29 and as per his contract with the band of pirates he needed to serve until his twenty-first ‘birthday’, not till he was twenty-one years old. Since Frederic’s birthday came around only every four years, he would be released from his apprenticeship only when he turned eighty-four!!!
Frederic went back to the pirates’ ship to serve another 63 years (84-21 = 63). Mabel promised to wait for him.
Did you know that NOT every fourth year is a leap year?
What do 2008, 2024, 1996, 1948 have in common? All of them host Summer Olympics AND have an extra day in Feb. I am sure you have learnt at school that every year that is divisible by 4 is a leap year. Let’s check if we that is always correct.
1692 = divisible by 4 = leap year
1693 = NOT divisible by 4 = NOT leap year
1696 = divisible by 4 = leap year
1698 = NOT divisible by 4 = NOT leap year
1700 = ?
1700 is divisible by 4, but it is NOT a leap year. Bizarre!
Do you like addition?
The earth takes 365 days ‘+ a little extra time’ to finish a revolution. Scientists calculated the little extra time and found that it was almost a quarter day (0.25). Since four quarters make a whole (0.25 x 4 = 1 whole), they decided to add one full day every four years.
But, the earth did not take 0.25 days extra each year.
Instead, it took a little less than that - 0.24219 to be exact.
So at the end of every 4 years, we should have added 0.24219 x 4 = 0.97 days.
Instead we added 1.00 full day. That’s 0.03 days extra each leap year.
What happens when that 0.03 days adds up over 100 years?
There would be 25 leap years. So we would have added 0.03 x 25 = 0.75 days extra. This is almost a whole day.
To take away that one extra day we added during these 100 years, scientists decided that they should leave Feb with just 28 days, on the 100th year.
So at the end of every 100 years, e.g. 1700, 1800, 1900 - do NOT have a leap year.
If you loved all this Math and haven’t gone bonkers, read on. Because things get even more mysterious after this, as I am going to tell you that the year 2000 is a leap year!
What!! Why!!
If you remember, scientists were trying to take away a full day at the end of every 100 years. But they really should have taken away only 0.72 days (24 x 0.03 = 0.72).
So every 100 years, we were taking away an extra 0.28 days (1.00-0.72)
Over 400 years, we were unnecessarily taking away 0.28 x 4 = 1.12 days.
To compensate this, we add back one whole day at the end of 400 years.
That’s why 1200 AD ,1600 AD, 2000 AD are leap years.
Wow! If your head is reeling, here is a quick way to wash all this Math down, relax and have a merry laugh.
In Feb, we started a new format of podcast episodes called ‘Guess the news story’. In each episode, I give a few hints regarding the news story. The child co-hosts have to use their wits and ask me questions to unravel the rest of the news story.
None of them involved Math. All of them were a lot of fun.
The three episodes in this format that you might like to listen to, are
What one school in the US wants to do, to get students come to school
School attendance in one district in the US has been falling across grades. The district has decided to do something outlandish to get the kids to come to school. What did they do?
Why is an Italian town asking all dog owners to test their dog’s DNA
All dog owners in one town in Italy have been asked to get their pet’s DNA tested. This is mandatory and is expected to help the town become cleaner. Find out what this DNA test will be used for.
A spy was caught by India and recently released after being held in custody for eight months.
A spy who had been caught by the Indian government has been held in custody for over 8 months. However, the spy has been cleared of charges of spying for China and released. Find out who this spy was…..i.e. who the spy really was.