Calendars

From Morguefile

A mistake was made, a date was published in error and I said, "No problem, we'll just say you're using..." and I couldn't think of what calendar we use.  I thought it was the Julian calendar, so what would an alternative be? The Mayan?  Nah, the published date was just one day off.  Plus, it's too easy a target (calendar jokes are coming, I promise :) )

Google it.

So we use the Gregorian Calendar. Oh, yeah, that's right.*  Replaced the Julian calendar.

Then that led me to this link about why the year 2100 won't be a leap year and how the Gregorian calendar makes adjustments because it takes a little more than 365 days for the earth to circle the sun - so we gain days if we just have a 365 day calendar - but not perfectly - so we need leap years - one every four years - UNLESS the year is divisible by 100 - UNLESS that year is also divisible by 400 UNLESS (and this one hasn't been put into practice - yet - but we'll need it eventually) it is also divisible by 4,000.  Yeah, do the math on that and figure it out.  Or read the article in the link.

Coolness that a pope just erased 10 days one October in 1583.  That's power, eh?  And then to sync all the world's calendars, Sweden had a February 30th in 1712.  How would you like to be the kid born on that day?  "When is your birthday?"  Feb 30th.  "Dude, you'll NEVER have another birthday. EVER.  Happy birthday to you..."  The US and Britain, amid widespread protests (imagine that) lost 11 days in September 1752 to sync with everybody else (probably why we'll never be metric - still bitter over losing those eleven days - yeah, I'm pretty sure that's it...)

Heh - they say the solution is to adopt a NEW WORLD CALENDAR.  Yeah, okay - I can't see any problems with that idea.  No resistance there...

Anyway, I just thought that was really cool...














*So, once upon a time I actually learned this stuff - not just in preparation for being on Jeopardy - I really learned this stuff 'cause I, like, cared.  But I can barely remember my own name now...