Why do we need leap year?

For most of us, Feb. 29 is just another day at the office, but for those unlucky leaplings, or people born on Leap Day, it’s time to celebrate a birthday that comes around only every four years.

Adding an extra day to the calendar during leap year is a way of keeping our years consistent with one another.

Having a leap year is necessary to balance out the seasons because the earth actually takes about 365.25 days to orbit the sun, technically leaving a quarter of a day each year to roll over into the next.

“Every four years we add an extra day to the month [of February] to make up for that quarter,” said Phil Shoulars, a Frink Middle School science teacher.

According to Dr. Charles Evans, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of North Carolina, we need leap year to offset the fraction of a day left over each year. Without it the quarters would eventually add up and the seasons would migrate around the calendar, he said.

“If you simply define your calendar as having 365 days, in about 500 years, summer would occur in September,” Evans said.

Without a leap year, a Christmas in July could actually become a reality.

Abby Stewart can be reached at (252) 559-1075 or at astewart@freedomenc.com.