Subject: Re: [HM] Calendrical questions
From: R. E. Taylor (leesoft@mindspring.com)
Date: Mon Jan 31 2000 - 00:01:29 EST
A few weeks ago I posted the question below on the Math History list:
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According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica Pope Gregory XIII in 1582
February 24. caused the calendar to be reformed. According to this
reform, certain leap days which by the Julian Calendar would be added
to years divisible by 4 would not be added if the year was divisible
by 100 unless also divisible by 400. This has the effect of dropping
three days out of 400 years increasing the accuracy of the calendar
to one day out of 2500.
This is usually referred to as the Gregorian rule and the resulting
calendar the Gregorian Calendar. What was the actual statement of
this rule?
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There were several interesting responses, but none actually addressed
the question, which is, what was the actual rule defining the Gregorian
reform, not, what is the rule of the modern calendar, which includes
further occasional intercalations. (The Gregorian reform also included
dropping ten days to get Easter back in sync with the seasons.)
Regards,
Bob Taylor
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