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

Because you also travel once around the sun, so the sun is on the other side of the earth, and day is still day.

The rotation of the earth, measured as 23 hours 56 ,minutes, is compared with the universe in general, measure against a distant star.

The leap year addresses a different thing – that the solar year – measured against the sun – is a bit less than 365¼ days. So we need to add another day every 4 years to keep the calendar from drifting compared to the seasons. We also skip a leap day 3 times in every 400 years – every cententenary year that isn’t divisible by 400 – to keep things even closer.