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

submitted 8 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 8 months ago* (last edited 8 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] 10 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

idk, it feels more intuitive for it to be based on the mode (most common) year length (365) instead of the average year length (365.2425).

[–] [email protected] 27 points 8 months ago

The boring answer is that in physics a year is just defined as the time it takes for the Earth to orbit the sun, they don't care about calendars and leap years

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