Google says that “On Earth, a sidereal day is almost exactly 23 hours and 56 minutes.” Meaning that every year we lose 4×365:60≈24h so one day of time. And leap year is supposed to compensate for that but it only happens every 4 years not every year. Can someone explain me why is that so?
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That is not what a leap year compensates for. Leap years compensate for the fact that one year is not exactly 365 days, it is ~365.24 days. There rotation of the Earth and the orbit of the Earth around the sun are independent, so one is never going to be a whole number multiple of the other.
The reason a sidereal day (the actual time it takes the Earth to rotate once) and a solar day (the time it takes the sun to appear to circle the Earth) are different is because the Earth is both rotating and revolving.
Imagine you are walking in circles around a lamp. When you are east of the lamp, the west side of you is lit up. But when you are west of it, your east side is lit up. So facing the same direction means different times of “day” depending on where you are in your “orbit”, and it will add up to the difference of one rotation.
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