Leap Years: we can do better

2016 is a leap year because it is a multiple of 4 (and not a multiple of 100). The Gregorian Calendar system of leap years gives an average tropical year of 365.2425 days compared to the current true value of 365.2421891, but I think we can do better.

Yes, at the 1:20-ish point it should be "365.2421891 days" as is on the screen, not the "365.2521891 years" I say. Sorry, it's been a busy week and I recored and edited the video a bit too quickly to spot Past Matt's mistakes.

Read Adam Goucher's article here:

Music by Howard Carter
Design by Simon Wright

MATT PARKER: Stand-up Mathematician

[unvergebeneid]

So glad the US were still a colony when that Gregorian Calendar change happened or we'd all have to convert between international dates and US dates.

[MilanMilan]

*The Parker Calendar*
It's not quite perfect, but its very close..

[deldarel]

Alright, I'll buy a calendar in 3 million years.

Gotta put that date on my...
oh...

[QuarioQuario]

Pope Gregory was probably thinking “by the time that happens humanity will have found a better way to keep track of time”

[nolansprojects]

As a leap year baby born on feb. 29, 2000, I have done my research, crunched numbers, and looked at many calendars, and have figured out similar information, but that last part of your equation was a good touch!

[flikkie]

I would have preferred the 0th of March, that way we could all agree that - eventhough it's a day - it's not a day and we can collectively do nothing.

[dandan]

How about altering the Earth's orbit to fit our calendar? Problem fixed!

[aarontt]

Even better than binary - write the years in hexadecimal. Then it's just whenever the year ends in 80 or 00.

[funnymyth]

"One great thing about being a pope, I guess, is that you are good at getting a lot of people to change their behavior on seemingly arbitrary reasons." LMAO you right

[Blackbird]

I did a bit of math on my own comparing this proposed calendar to the Gregorian calendar and found something interesting. If every 3200 years we skip a leap year, the calendars become exactly the same in terms of long term drift. Under the Gregorian calendar, we have 776 leap years every 3200 years, while this calendar has 775 in the same period.

[SoulSukkur]

looks like i gotta mark my calendar for 3.372 million years from now, for when I should buy --
...
another calendar.
hmm

[reeper]

I've always been in favor of a 13 month calendar. It has the benefit of keeping dates and days of the week synced until the very last day of the year. The first 12 months of the year have exactly 28 days each, making them multiples of the number of days in a week, so for the entire year, you would know that the 1st is always a monday, or that the 27th is always a saturday. The final month of the year has 29 days, so the first 28 are the same as the other months, and then it shifts by one, unless it is a leap year, in which case it has 30 days, and shifts by 2.

So for example, in year 1, the first is always a monday. In fact, mondays are always either 1st, 8th, 15th, or 22nd. This trend continues throughout the year, until the final month, when there is also a monday which falls on the 29th. Then the next year starts, and your 1st, 8th, 15th, and 22nd's all fall on Tuesdays now. This might cause some confusion, if you were always used to an 8th being a monday, or a 13th being a saturday. Of course, this could be fixed by making the last one (or two) days of the 13th month a special vacation day, with no assigned week day name. A blank day (or two) if you will.

This can significantly simplify scheduling various things, such as doctor appointments, school holidays, vacations, and work days. You'll never have to look up whether the 20th is a week day or not, as it is always a saturday, assuming the blank day is appropriated into this calendar system.

[fishandchips]

You and the rest of the numberphile crew have tangibly enriched my life.Thank you for this!

[Boba]

Now imagine that the perfect year with integer number of days turns out to be a leap year...

[christinam]

"that's longer than the sun is gonna last... I think we have this sorted" haha touche

[leomoran]

Britain and its colonies were by no means the last to switch to the Gregorian Calendar. It took becoming defunct for the Russian Empire to switch to the Gregorian Calendar, adopted in 1918

[kpaasial]

Julius Caeser got it wrong initially, in his new calendar the leap years were every 3rd year. It took Augustus to fix this error and have leap years every 4th year (with the standard exceptions).

[codys]

Caesar's fella's did a pretty decent job considering. They trusted future smart folks would be able to parse the date if it really mattered.

Good on them.

And you too pal.

[blue_leader_]

Matt: We have to fix the calendar so it drifts every couple of trillion years
Also Matt: Give or take a bit

[doriancostley]

So in the absence of a reliable long term answer to the ascribed problem, a series of short term solutions that change with the problem is the best solution.