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xkcd #2897: Light Leap Years (imgs.xkcd.com)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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https://xkcd.com/2897

Alt text:

When Pope Gregory XIII briefly shortened the light-year in 1582, it led to navigational chaos and the loss of several Papal starships.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (17 children)

Hmmm now that I think about this a light year would be (should be) based on an average year, not what we observe in any given year.

365.2425 days. Different searches give different results but that's what I'm going with.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (13 children)

I would've said 365.25 days?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

They skip leap years every now and then. And then skip the skip. Etc. The rotation of the earth around the sun and the spin of the earth on its axis simply don't line up into a nice number.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Oh okay. Yeah I only have that rule of "every 4 years" in my head. I did some other programming exercise way back where we had some other rule, but I was thinking that it would end up being the same.

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