[ale] [OT] Date change proposal

[drifter at oppositelock.org (Sean)]

On Tuesday 12 August 2008 07:17:08 am Scott Castaline wrote:
> That's pretty much how the hebrew calendar is set up. It is based on the
> moon orbit of 28 days = month 13 months =year, I'm not sure about the
> extra day that you refer to. Oh and that calendar has been going for
> over 5000 years.

But the problem is that the moon's synodic orbit takes about 29.5 days to
get from one full moon to the next.  (It's sidereal period is a bit more 
than 27 days as I recall.)  The Hebrew calendar assumes the 28-day lunar
month and then has to jump through all sorts of hoops to keep the holidays
from getting completely out of whack.

Sean