US Astronomer Proposes 364-Day Calendar

美天文学家提出一年为364天的历法

An American physicist is proposing a new calendar in which important days could fall on the same day of the week year after year. Instead of the familiar Gregorian 365-day year with one extra day added every four years. The new calendar offers a 364-day year with a leap week every five or six years. It’s the bearing child of Richard Henry.

He’s taught physics and astronomy courses in Johns Hopkins University for nearly thirty years. Although the curriculum remains essentially the same, the homework is due on different dates each year and the exam dates changed, too. So, each year, he has to make up a different schedule for his students.

Professor Henry: I said to myself, 'I don't mind doing that because I have to do it.' But then one year I said, 'Wait, I'm a professional astronomer. Let me see whether this is necessary or not.' And quickly I discovered that it is not necessary at all.

That is because, under Professor Henry's Calendar and Time Plan, each 12-month period is identical to the one that came before and has only 364 days.

Professor Henry: An astronomical year set by the motion of the earth's rotation going around the sun is 365.2422 days long. And of course, 365 is not divisible by seven -- whereas 364 days, which is the year I'm advocating, can be divided by seven and that is what allows it to be the same every year.

Each month in this revised year would have either 30 or 31 days, which means that eight months would be longer or shorter than they are now. March, June, September and December would each contain 31 days, while the other months would last 30. Instead of the quadrennial leap year of the Gregorian calendar, Professor Henry says his calendar would add an extra week every five or six years.

Professor Henry: We have this extra day and quarter each year that we are missing out on. So my idea is to accumulate those until we have a full week and then stick it in. That's the extra week, which I call Newton. It dose not have to be named that of course. I named Newton because I'm a physicist, but I'm sure that if this idea does get adopted, there will be some kind of international conference and they will decide on either a different name for it or maybe just make a June one week longer.

注释：

fall on 落到，指向

Gregorian [5^ri5^C:riEn] adj. 罗马教皇的

astronomy [E5strRnEmi] n. 天文学

curriculum [kE5rikjulEm] n. 课程

rotation [rEu5teiFEn] n. 旋转

quadrennial [kwC5drenjEl] adj. 继续四年的，每四年一次的