Background: In his Y2K special Only the Hard Core (99/Dec/1), Andersen made the following statement: "Some say many computers will not recognize leap year in the year 2000." To Andersen came this response from an avid reader: In your issue "Hard Core- Y2K" the author was talking about 2000 not being recognized as a leap year. It better not be. The way the Gregorian system works is that any year divisable by both 4 and 5 is not a leap year. At all. Look it up, it's true. The following statement was Andersen's intended reply to the reader: Hello Copal, Thank you for your e-mail. I am also interested in Leap Seconds. The article does recognize 2000 as a leap year. Some folks are worried their computers will not. Another way of looking at it: A leap year is such in EITHER of the following cases. The year is divisible by 4 but NOT by 100. OR The year is divisible by 400 only. "Funk and Wagnalls" defines leap year as, "every year divisible by 4 , except those completing a century, which must be divisible by 400 (as 2000)." From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, December 29, 1995, p.2: Most years ending in "00" are not leap years, but those divisible by 400 (including 2000) are. The Julian calendar, authorized by Julius Caesar in 46 B.C., assumed that the year had 365 1/4 days, with a 366-day leap year added every fourth year. In A.D. 730, an Anglo-Saxon monk, the Venerable Bede, calculated that the Julian year was 11 minutes and 14 seconds too long, an error of about one day every 128 years. But nothing was done about it for 800 years. In 1582, the accumulated error was estimated at 10 days, and Pope Gregory X III decreed that the day following Oct. 4 would be Oct. 15. To make future adjustments for the error (about three days every 400 years), it was decided that years ending in "00" would be common years rather than leap years -- except those divisible by 400. So 1600 was a leap year and 2000 also will be, but 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not. I close with my respect and thanks for checking out TheWax. Warmest regards,   Andersen     -30- However, to our dismay, it would seem that "Copal" did not leave a correct email address to which Andersen could reply. Either that or "Copal" is using an email filter to keep out junk mail and has not set it to receive email from TheWax.com. I felt it was an interesting enough misconception to warrant this public reply... Not to mention an opportunity for "Copal" to finally hear from us and remedy his email situation. -t
Santa The Spokesman 99/Dec/1 - Did you know The Coca-Cola Company created Santa Claus? (NB Flash plug-in required) In The Name of the Son 99/Nov/22 - From the creator of W.O.T., Jonathan Dy's got plans for his name to live on and on. The Dumb Presidents Society 99/Nov/17 - Introducing Viki with a little commentary on american politics straight from Hollywood. Extensive Archives