When you’re going to sleep, your child asks, “What day is the middle of the year?” You think it’s around July 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. But you’re unsure because common years have 365 days with February having 28 days, while leap years have 366 days with February having 29 days.
Here is the answer: for common years, July 2 is the day in the middle of the year, while July 1st 24:00 pm or July 2nd 00:00 am is exactly the middle day and time of leap years.
Let’s see how they’re calculated.
Middle Day In a Common Year
In a common year with 365 days starting from January 1st to December 31st. 365 = 182 + 1 + 182. So the middle day would be the 183rd day, with 182 days before it and 182 days after it.
Here is the calculation process:
Jan (31 days) + Feb (28 days) + Mar (31 days)+ Apr (30 days) + May (31 days)+ June (30 days) = 181 days
181 days + 2 days = 183 days, so the second day in July is the middle day of a common year, that is July 2nd.
Middle Day In a Leap Year
There are 366 days in a leap year, 366 = 183 + 183. Therefore, there is no exact date that can be called as the middle of the year, but there can be a time. And the exact time is between the end of 183rd (24:00 pm) or the beginning of 184th (00:00 am), they’re the same time. This means there are 183 days before this point and 183 days after it.
Jan (31 days) + Feb (29 days) + Mar (31 days)+ Apr (30 days) + May (31 days)+ June (30 days) = 182 days
182 days + 1 days = 183 days, therefore, July 1st is the 183rd day and July 1st 24:00 or July 2nd 00:00 is the middle time of a leap year.