A leap year is a year with one extra day added to the calendar, typically February 29th, to keep our calendars in sync with the Earth's actual orbit around the Sun. 

Here's the backstory:

• A calendar year has 365 days, right? Not quite! It takes Earth 365.242190 days to complete one full orbit around the Sun. That extra "0.242190" might seem tiny, but over time, it adds up.
• Think of it like rounding down. If we kept using a 365-day calendar year forever, the seasons would gradually drift out of sync. Each year, the "missing" 0.242190 days would accumulate, causing spring to arrive a little later, summer a tad longer, and so on.
• Leap year acts as a correction. By adding an extra day (February 29th) every four years, we make up for that lost time and keep our calendar roughly aligned with the actual seasons. This ensures predictable, stable seasons, which are crucial for agriculture, planning, and cultural traditions tied to seasonal events.

Here's a breakdown of the math:

• Adding one extra day every four years is like saying: 1 year = 365 + 0.25 days.
• Over four years, this adds up to 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 4 extra days.
• These four extra days roughly compensate for the total "lost" time (4 * 0.25 days ≈ 1 day).

As for 2024, yes, it is a leap year! You can remember this easily by following these rules:

1. A year is usually a leap year if it is evenly divisible by 4.
2. However, years divisible by 100 (century years like 1900 or 2000) are not leap years unless they are also divisible by 400.

Since 2024 is divisible by 4 but not by 100, it meets the first rule and qualifies as a leap year.

In essence, observing leap years keeps our calendar grounded in reality by aligning it with the Earth's true orbital period. This ensures seasonal predictability and prevents our seasons from drifting into a perpetual mismatch with our calendar months.

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