Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!spool.mu.edu!munnari.oz.au!comp.vuw.ac.nz!waikato.ac.nz!canterbury!cctr132 From: cctr132@csc.canterbury.ac.nz (Nick FitzGerald, CSC, Uni. of Canterbury, NZ) Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal Subject: Re: Leap year function Message-ID: <1991Jun8.161223.994@csc.canterbury.ac.nz> Date: 8 Jun 91 04:12:23 GMT References: <4183@jethro.Corp.Sun.COM> <1991Jun6.083418.9559@ulrik.uio.no> Organization: University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand Lines: 24 In article <1991Jun6.083418.9559@ulrik.uio.no>, oep@gi.uio.no (Oeyvind Pedersen) writes: > The Julian calendar HAD leap years. The problem was that it had too > many - 25 in each century, > while the Gregorian calendar has 24.25, that is 24 in three centuries > and 25 in the fourth. > That makes an average year 365.2425 days long instead of 365.25, while > the "real" year, i.e > the time the earth uses in one lap is about 365.2422 days. I know this is getting way off-topic for this group, but the obvious question now arises: What happens to these "additional" .0003 days? Do they just accumulate, putting us further and further out of kilter but more slowly than the excessive Julian leap years? I've heard of "leap seconds" (yeah, no kidding) - are these anything to do with it? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nick FitzGerald, PC Applications Consultant, CSC, Uni of Canterbury, N.Z. Internet: n.fitzgerald@csc.canterbury.ac.nz Phone: (64)(3) 642-337