If Earth makes one complete rotation on its axis every 23 hours and 56 minutes, how does day and night not being flipped on our clocks after six months? (6monthx30dayx4min/60=12hour)

Question

And why leap year happens once per 4 years only to address this?

In: 1081

Answer 1

A day is defined as the time between the Sun being in the same position in the sky, and an hour is 1/24th of that. So the clocks stay in sync with the day-night cycle because they’re based on it.

The Earth’s spin on its axis is *not* synced to the day-night cycle. That’s how a single rotation can be less than a complete day long; one complete spin of the Earth doesn’t put the Sun in exactly the same place.