What if there wasn't a February 29th?

I think that the sun would be off by one day every four years. So instead of the winter solstice being on December 21st it would be December 22nd. So if this continued for the next 720 years the winter solstice would begin in June. Since 6 months X 30 days X 4 years = 720 years.

This is actually an interesting question.

You have lived through an oddity: 2000 was a leap year, but normally (3 out of 4 times) the century year is not a leap year. 1900, 2100, 2200, and 2300 are not leap years even though divisible by 4. The reason is that having a leap year every 4 years is a bit too much, so the actual rule requires that in the century year the two upper digits be divisible by 4 so 20 and 24 remain as leap years.

You can ask George Washington if you can reach him, because he changed the day of the month on which he celebrated his birthday when the calendar was adjusted to match the sun by omitting 12 days in 1750. He was born on the 12th of February, Old Style, and moved it to the 21st to keep it 365 days after the previous one. The Orthodox calendar is off by 12 days from the Catholic one for the similar reason.

Not having the 29th would rapidly disrupt the relationship of spring, etc., to the calendar.

http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/Scalend.htm

Kevin F is correct, except that leap days are exactly every 4 years.

In 126 years, winter solstice would be on January 21, and summer would begin on July 21 (northern hemisphere).

I think most Christians would object to dropping Feb 29th, on the grounds that it would change the date of Easter.

And reading Owen W's comment: the calendar has nothing to do with the day/night cycle and the clock. That depends on if there are exactly 24 hours x 60 minutes x 60 seconds in an average solar day. There are not, but that's another subject.

Over the course of centuries, the Roman Calendar would shift, a quarter of a day each year, and very soon our preconceptions about the months and the seasons would begin to look very silly. Christmas would be in the middle of the summer (although by then, of course, Christmas would be in the winter in the SOUTHERN hemisphere, where it is currently in the summer).

Keep in mind, however, that the breakdown of the Roman calendar would not proceed with the kind of elegant illogic I have described. This is because we would lose only a fraction of a day each year. So sooner than we saw a calendar disruption, we would see a disruption of our day/night cycles, as the sun failed to keep up with the calendar.

Also note that other civilizations have other calendars which do not have a leap year. The Japanese, for example, particularly in antiquity, measured the passage of time from the installment of each new Emperor.

The cycle of the seasons, technically known as the tropical year, is approximately 365.2422 days. Since a calendar year consists of an integral number of whole days, a calendar year cannot exactly match the tropical year. If the calendar year always consisted of 365 days, it would be short of the tropical year by about 0.2422 days every year. In about 750 years January would be in mid summer!

I think Kevin F is completely wrong and has not an idea in the world of what he is talking about with this scientific junk.

AHHHH no february 29th?

that would be no fun. wat if u were born on february 29th. you'd only have a b-day every 4 years. wow. im bored. LALLALAALA. srry. im not at all helpful