War and Peace and days and years
We get a review of War and Peace, and we learn how many days there are in a year.
Happy holidays!
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Book Review: War and Peace
A couple of years ago I read War and Peace without knowing what I got myself into. I remember it fondly, and this review, written at the time, captures some of that.
Full article (20–45 minute read): Book Review: War and Peace
Flashcard of the week
Since today is a special date for many, let's pick a date-related flashcard. Sometimes it's convenient to be able to convert daily frequencies into yearly, or vice versa. This takes knowing how many days there are in a year.
How many days are there in a (Gregorian) year?
We may want to account for the fact that every fourth year is a leap year, unless it is also every hundredth year, unless again it is also every fourhundredth year, which are leap years again (this is why the year 2000 was a leap year, despite being an even multiple of 100.)
The answer is 365 + 1/4 - 1/100 + 1/400 which is not that hard to remember as its decimal expansion
365.2425
But you'll find a surprising number of people who disagree with this!
(Bonus: how many days are there in a month? 365.2425/12 is not a particularly neat fraction, but I store the approximation 30.44 in my head, because it is fairly easy to remember.)
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