I searched leap years online and found that 1900 is not, contrary to what I thought, a leap year. But, why is it not if 1900 is divisible by 4:
$\frac{1900}{4} = 475$
My brother was working on his math (and he obviously got it wrong and asked me for help, so.. here I am), and the question was:
Which year, after $1899$ is a leap year?
Well, after finding that $1900$ is indeed divisible by 4, his intuition led him to believe that $1900$ was thus the next leap year. However, the answer is $1904$.
Would someone mind explaining this?
2025-01-15 10:42:39.1736937759
Why isn't 1900 a leap year?
1.8k Views Asked by Carlos Carlsen https://math.techqa.club/user/carlos-carlsen/detail At
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If you google "leap year" you will find that a year $n$ is a leap year if $n$ is divisible by $4$, except if $n$ is divisible by $100$. If it's divisible by $400$, though, it's still a leap year.
$1900$ is divisible by $100$, but not $400$, so it is not a leap year. $2000$, however, was a leap year.
The length of a Tropical Year is approximately $365.2422$ mean solar days.
Julian Calendar
The Julian Calendar approximates the length of a tropical year as $$ 365.25=365+\tfrac14 $$ Therefore, it adds one leap year every $4$ years.
Thus, every year that is divisible by $4$ is a leap year.
Gregorian Calendar
The Gregorian Calendar approximates the length of a tropical year as $$ 365.2425=365+\tfrac14-\tfrac1{100}+\tfrac1{400} $$ Therefore, it adds one leap year every $4$ years, skipping one every $100$ years, but adding one back every $400$ years.
Thus, every year that is divisible by $4$ is a leap year except for those divisible by $100$ but not $400$.