Why 2100 will not be a leap year, which date the Romans counted twice, and what the law says about a birthday on February 29: four rounds, each answer with its reason.
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Four rounds, from Rome to February 29
The rule and the numbers has the 400-year cycle and the weekday that gets leaped over. Caesar and the old leap day explains the doubled day and the word bissextile. Leap years in other calendars visits Egypt, China and Iran. Leaplings, laws and customs is about people born on February 29.
Leap year trivia questions and answers, printable
A tap on a choice shows the answer and its reason. After ten questions the card offers Print question sheet, a sheet of 20. Open More options there for Topic, to stay on one round, and for Print answer key.
Tips
Leaplings, laws and customs is the gentlest round by our estimate; Caesar and the old leap day has the most hard questions.
A few questions in The rule and the numbers are sums. Give teams a pencil.
Questions and answers
Is 2100 a leap year?
No. A century year is a leap year only if it can be divided exactly by 400, so 2000 was one and 2400 will be, but 2100, 2200 and 2300 will not. After 2096 the next leap year is 2104.
Why do we have leap years?
Because a year of 365 days is shorter than the tropical year by almost six hours. An extra day in February every fourth year keeps the calendar in step with the seasons.
Why is it called a leap year?
Probably because of the weekdays. A fixed date normally moves on one day of the week each year, but after a leap day it moves on two, leaping over one day.
What is someone born on February 29 called?
A leapling, or a leaper. In common years leaplings celebrate on February 28 or March 1, and in the United Kingdom the legal birthday is taken to be March 1.
2096 will be a leap year. Which is the next leap year after it?Answer: 2104. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
A lunar year of 12 lunar months is shorter than an astronomical year by about how many days?Answer: 11 days. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
A year of 365 days is shorter than the tropical year by almost how much?Answer: Six hours. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
How many leap days does the Gregorian calendar leave out in every 400 years?Answer: Three. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
How many leap years are there in each 400 years of the Gregorian calendar?Answer: 97. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
In a lunisolar calendar, what does a leap year add where the Gregorian calendar adds a day?Answer: A month. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
Leap days come on a regular schedule. Which other correction to the clock does not?Answer: The leap second. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
March 1 falls on a Sunday in 2026 and on a Monday in 2027. On which day does it fall in 2028, a leap year?Answer: Wednesday. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
What is a year without a leap day called?Answer: A common year. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
What is the average length of a year in the Gregorian calendar?Answer: 365.2425 days. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
Why is it probably called a "leap" year?Answer: After the leap day, a date leaps over one day of the week. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
Caesar and the old leap day 12
A Julian year lasts 365.25 days. By about how much is that longer than the mean tropical year?Answer: 11 minutes. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
An old word for a leap year, "bissextile", comes from the Latin bis sextum. What does bis sextum mean?Answer: Twice sixth. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
Before Caesar's reform, which was already the shortest month of the year for the Romans?Answer: February. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
The calendar of the Roman Republic had 12 months. How many days did they add up to?Answer: 355. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
For about how long was the Julian calendar used unaltered?Answer: 1600 years. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
How long was the Mensis Intercalaris, the extra month the Roman Republic sometimes added?Answer: 27 days. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
In the older Roman calendar, every month but February had an odd number of days. Why?Answer: Romans held even numbers to be unlucky. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
Julius Caesar's reformed calendar, with a leap day every four years, took effect on January 1 of which year?Answer: 45 BC. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
Since about which century has the extra day been February 29?Answer: The 15th century. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
When the Julian calendar was introduced, the leap day was made by doubling a date. Which date?Answer: February 24. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
Which act first formally recognized February 29 in British law?Answer: The Calendar (New Style) Act 1750. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
Which English king's statute of 1236 told magistrates to treat the leap day and the day before it as one day?Answer: Henry III. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
Leap years in other calendars 10
Ancient Egypt used a civil year of 365 days with no leap day. How fast did its calendar drift against the solar year?Answer: About one day every four years. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
The calendars of Bangladesh and India are arranged so that every leap day falls close to which Gregorian date?Answer: February 29. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
The Coptic calendar has 12 months of 30 days and a short 13th month. How many days does the 13th month have in a leap year?Answer: 6. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
The Hebrew calendar adds a leap month how many times in every nineteen years?Answer: Seven. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
In the Chinese calendar, the leap month is placed by a rule that keeps one event always in month 11. Which event?Answer: The northern winter solstice. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
The Revised Julian calendar agrees with the Gregorian until 2799. Which is the first year in which the two will differ?Answer: 2800. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
Since which year has the Thai solar calendar been synchronized with the Gregorian?Answer: 1941. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
The Solar Hijri calendar, the modern Iranian calendar, adds its leap day to which month?Answer: The last month of the year. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
What do pure lunar calendars do about drifting through the seasons?Answer: They accept the drift. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
Which decree of 238 BC, issued by a synod of priests in Egypt, proposed one extra day every four years?Answer: The Canopus Decree. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
Leaplings, laws and customs 8
A person born on February 29 who counts only the birthdays that fall on that date can claim to be about what fraction of their real age?Answer: A quarter. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
In common years, on which dates do people born on February 29 celebrate their birthdays?Answer: February 28 or March 1. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
In France, what has been published only on February 29 since 1980?Answer: A satirical newspaper. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
In the United Kingdom, which date is taken as the legal birthday of a person born on February 29?Answer: March 1. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
Taiwan's Civil Code has implied a legal birthday for people born on February 29 since October 10 of which year?Answer: 1929. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
What is a person born on February 29 sometimes called?Answer: A leapling. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
Which city's law has said since 1990 exactly which day counts as the birthday of a person born on February 29?Answer: Hong Kong. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
Which Texas town declared itself the "leap year capital of the world" in February 1988?Answer: Anthony. Source: Wikipedia: Leap year
How this list was compiled
Written for this site; nothing was copied from another list. Questions and wrong choices are our own. Each explanation restates, in our own sentences, a fact from the English Wikipedia article named and linked beside the question (https://en.wikipedia.org, text under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license): Leap year. The text of each article was fetched on October 2 or 3, 2026, and on October 3, 2026 the passage that states each fact was read in it before the question was kept. The pack is about the calendar: the rule, the Roman leap day, leap years in other calendars and people born on February 29. Sums in a question or a reason (a weekday, a count of days, the next leap year after 2096) were worked again as arithmetic. Left out on purpose: the leap year customs about marriage proposals, the saints' days that the leap day moves, and facts the site's birthday and decade packs already ask (the 60th day of the year, why 1900 was not a leap year and 2000 was, the February 30 of 1712). Levels are our estimate: easy is fair for any table, medium suits people who know the subject, hard will stump most tables. Each question also carries the date its article was read (checkedOn). Licence: own work