A POEM DEDICATED TO MY BELOVED MUM BY SIR O.E NEWTON TITLED - JUST CATCH SOME Z,S

magenta, violet and purple pictures by Sir O.E Newton

SIR ONWUEGBU EMEKA NEWTON - DETAILED AND CONCISE DESCRIPTION OF A LEAP YEAR

                                    LEAP YEAR

BISSEXTILE YEAR OR LEAP YEAR OR INTERCALARY YEAR

                 BY SIR O.E O.E NEWTON

                        Suppose the Christmas celebration was observed on a Tuesday for the 1^st year, Wednesday for the 2^nd year, Thursday for the 3^rd year and finally leaped over to a Saturday on the 4^th year instead of a Friday; the most concise and precise term that best describes this natural phenomena is what we call a leap year. Certainly, that particular year (i.e. the 4^th year) in which that extra day (leap day) was added to the calendar in order to harmonize it with the seasons is called a leap year.

                           Furthermore, our elementary science truly pointed out that it takes the earth approximately 365  days to make one complete revolution round the sun. This effect of an incomplete day in every year can easily be corrected in most cases to give one day in every four years, although appears to be different when dealing with century (a period of one hundred years). This so called leap year is that very year that welcomes February 29^th back on our calendar instead of the usual 28 days in the month of February.

                           In the same vein, literature and experimental findings had also reviewed that the accumulated errors of adding a leap day every four years amount to about 3 extra days over a period of four centuries. Hence, the Gregorian calendar therefore removes three leap days in every 400 years to correct this anomaly. In other words, only centuries divisible by 400 and not 4 should be called a leap year. For example, the centuries 2100, 2200, 2300 and 2400 are divisible by 4 but only the year, 2400 is divisible by 400. Hence, the errors of 3 extra days accumulated over a period of these four centuries by adding a leap day every four years should be corrected in the year 2100, 2200 and 2300; so that only the year 2400 among the listed centuries should be counted as a leap year and the rest, as common years.

Facts about Leap Year and Leap Day

1.    Excluding centuries, every leap year must be divisible by 4 (i.e. it occurs every four years).

2.    Only centuries that are divisible by 400 and not 4 should be regarded as leap year

3.    The leap year welcomes February 29^th (leap day) to our calendar.

4.    The earth takes approximately 365  days (i.e. 365 days 6 hours) but exactly 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes and 16 seconds to make one complete revolution around the sun. This makes it partially inaccurate to add up six hours in every four years to make one complete day.

5.    Leap day (February 29^th) is an extra working day without an extra pay.

6.    Any child born on February 29^th is called a leaper or leapling.

7.    Leaplings will technically enjoy less birthday anniversaries than their age in years.

8.    The European football championship and summer Olympic games always comes up every 4 years which happens to fall in leap years.

9.    The only recognized person whose birth and death date were February 29^th was Sir James Wilson (1812 – 1880, premier of Tasmania.

10. Astrologers also postulated that people born under the sign of Pisces on February 29th, possess unusual talent and personalities.

11. However, there is a Scottish saying that “leap year was never a good sheep year”.