Why Do We Need Leap Years?

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You probably know that its existence is something to do with the Earth orbiting the sun, but why exactly do we have leap years? And isn't there a better solution?

Why does February 29th exist?

Today exists because our planet doesn't orbit the sun in a nice, whole number of of days. During one orbit of the sun—what we call a year—the Earth rotates just over 365 times. In fact, to be precise, it rotates 365.242190419 times. It's that messy bit after the decimal point, close to a quarter, that is the cause of the leap year.   more...