ValueSpeak
A Weekly Column
By Joseph Walker
A
There are two subjects that I have conscientiously
tried to avoid through 18 years of writing this column. It isn’t that I didn’t think you could handle
a frank discussion on these maters. It
was that I just couldn’t find the words.
But the time has come to talk about them
both. Boldly. So here goes.
It’s time to talk about . . . I can’t believe I’m doing this . . . it’s
time to talk about . . . math. And science.
Together. At the same time.
I know.
It’s scary, awkward and uncomfortable to get into this stuff in a
newspaper column, especially one that is written by someone who doesn’t know an
integer from a proton from a mango (you mean there’s a difference?). But there is just no way to talk about Leap
Year without at least mentioning the mathematics and the science involved.
So OK. Remember back in grade school, when they
taught you about how the earth rotates on its axis and revolves around the
sun? Back in those days they told you
that it takes about 24 hours (a full day) for the earth to rotate once, and
about 365 days – or a year – to complete one complete revolution around the
sun. Well, they lied. It actually takes
365 days and about six hours to make the complete revolution, so every four
years they have to add an extra day to the calendar – February 29 – to make up
the difference. Otherwise the seasons
would drift over time and eventually we’d be celebrating Christmas in the
middle of the summer – which, come to think of it, is how it works in
Australia, but they play a lot of rugby down there and bang their heads
together so often in scrums and such that they don’t really notice.
Now, here’s where the math starts to get
tricky. You notice that I said that it
takes 365 days and “about” six hours to make the complete revolution around the
sun. The actual number is 365 days, five
hours, 49 minutes and 12 seconds. That means
that in about 8,000 years we’ll be off by another day. Some scientists are proposing that the year
4000 A.D. NOT be considered a leap year in order to compensate, while others
suggest that the length of the vernal equinox will probably change by then so
the adjustment may not be necessary. And
then there are the global warming folks who insist that if we don’t make the
necessary changes in our carbon footprinting of this
planet we will have burned to a crisp by then, so who really cares?
Still, if you’re making plans for
None of which changes the fact that you have an
extra day this year.
Think about that for a second: an extra day! Twenty-four hours that you didn’t have last
year, or the year before that. It’s like
finding a 20 dollar bill in your pants pocket.
Suddenly you’re rich, and your mind swims with the possibilities for
spending this unforeseen bounty.
The last time I lucked into extra cash in my
pocket I blew it by ordering biggie sizes at the fast food restaurant instead
of ordering from the extra value menu.
What a waste (and, come to think of it, waist). Instead of strategically planning the best
ways to take full advantage of my good fortune I spent it whimsically, and
before long it was just gone, and I only had greasy fingers and
through-the-roof cholesterol to show for it.
Is that what we will do with this gift of an extra
day in 2008? Will we just blow it, or
will we accept it as a gift and make a plan to spend it wisely? Make it a day of service. A day of caring. A day to give back to your
community, your neighborhood, your church or your school.
Or perhaps it can be that mythical, magical
“someday” when you do all those things you’ve been meaning to do but put off
until you had the time. You have the
time on Feb. 29 – 24 hours that you didn’t have last year, and you won’t have
next year. So write those letters you’ve
been meaning to write. Visit that
elderly aunt. Take the kids
bowling. Clean the basement.
OK, forget that last one. Surely you can think of a better way to spend
your extra day than that. But whatever
you do, spend it well. Make it
special. It is, after all, a gift.
And how often do you get a gift from science and math?
# # #
— © Joseph Walker
For more ValueSpeak, please visit http://www.sfpnn.com/joseph_walker1.htm
E-mail Joseph at: valuespeak@msn.com
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