Gloria Linscott, age 13, of Portland, Maine, for her question;
Why don't all months have the same number of days?
A year is the time it takes the earth to orbit the sun ‑ which is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 45.575 seconds. The lunar month is the time from one new moon to the next‑‑which is 29 days, 12 hours, 44, minutes and 2.8 seconds. A day is the time it takes for the earth to rotate and this varies slightly throughout the year. The mean, or average, day is 23 hours, 3 minutes and 26.55 seconds.
Our calendar is based on the antics of these heavenly bodies. Though they run on perfect schedules there is no way of charting an exact number of days or lunar months in a year. The pieces just do not fit together. This explains why our calendar is a hodgepodge. However, it could be made more simple than it is. We can only hope that some day the people of the earth will get up enough courage to streamline the calendar as much as the heavenly bodies will allow.
This job was undertaken in the year 47 B.C. by Julius Caesar ‑ a very strong and neat‑minded man, He asked the best astronomer the exact number of days in a year and was told 365.4 days. The answer was slightly inaccurate, but Caesar based his calendar upon it.
He sliced the 365.4 days into twelve months„ But even great Caesar could not divide 3654 into 12 equal parts. He did his best. To the odd numbered months he gave 31 days. To the alternate even numbered months he gave 30 days except February, This month to the Romans was a time of mourning for the dead. Caesar cut February to 29 days and 30 days each leap year. This leap year dodge was supposed to make up for the odd quarter day in the solar year,
The common people mumbled and grumbled about Caesar's high‑handed action in changing their ancient calendars. Ft the Roman senate honored him by naming July for the great Julius Caesar was assassinated, his nephew Augustus too wanted a month in his honor, the month next to July.
This one, being an even‑numbered month, had only 30 days. To Augustus, this was very humiliating for the great Julius had 31 days in his month. So he took a day from poor little February and our month of August still has 31 days.
Caesar's calendar, along with minor changes, was still too long to tally with the solar year. This error was amended in 1552 by Pope Gregory XIII. The Gregorian calendar is accurate to within one day in 4,000 years.
An excellent plan for a perpetual calendar has been figured out in which the days, weeks, quarters and half years will be fixed. Maybe your generation will be brave enough to vote it into existence.