Spectrum News: Explaining the significance of Leap Year

If we didn’t have Leap years the world calendar and the seasons would be a jumble, UC’s Rebecca Borah tells Spectrum News in a segment on the science behind Leap Year.

Earth takes almost 365 days, five hours and 49 minutes every year to make a full rotation around the sun. That is nearly six hours more per year, adding up to 24 hours over the course of four years.

Without an adjustment, “...it would start to have more of an effect on our calendars and eventually the seasons would slide in a different direction in our calendars,” Borah said in a live interview with Spectrum News.

Borah is a professor in UC’s Department of English who researches myths, legends and lore and often provides media commentary on traditional — and not so traditional — observances that have both cultural and scientific basis in history.

Watch the interview.

Featured image at top of watch face: iStock Photo/volodar