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)

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

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28 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

It does.

You’re comparing a solar day with a sidereal day.

The difference is in how you define the start and finish of the day.

In a solar day, you track how long it takes for the sun to get to the same point in the sky. It takes 24h00m

A sidereal day is the same thing, but with a star, not the sun. That’s the 23h56m.

Because the Earth is orbiting the sun, the relative position between the Earth, sun, and rest of the stars changes constantly.

It also explains why you can only see constellations half of the year.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Here is a great video on the topic. It has excellent visuals to really help you understand!

Anonymous 0 Comments

Because after 6 months the Earth is on the other side of the sun.

We make one rotation in 23 hours and 56 minutes relative to distant stars. We make one rotation relative to our sun in 24 hours.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Our clocks are based on how long it takes for a spot on the earth to go from facing the sun, to facing to sun again. That’s a bit more than a full rotation because we have moved relative to the sun, so it may take 23:56 to do a full rotation but it takes 24:00 to be facing the sun again from a slightly different spot. The clocks don’t track one full rotation, they track facing the sun to facing the sun.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Our callendar sucks and should be totally redone. Then whomever invented daylight savings time should be flogged with that ancient callendar.

Anonymous 0 Comments

There’s two different types of things we call “days”: solar days, and sidereal days.

A solar day is the amount of time it takes for the sun to reach from one spot in the sky, to that same spot in the sky (24 hours). This is the amount of time we use primarily because it’s the most practical length of time for us to keep track of.

A sidereal day is the amount of time it takes for the Earth to complete a full rotation in regards to some absolute point in space (23 hrs and 56 minutes). This isn’t very practical for us to use (why would we care when we’ve made a full rotation compared to an absolute point in space? That point in space isn’t important to us for any other reason) so we generally don’t.

Anonymous 0 Comments

A DAY is defined as high-noon to high-noon. A revolution is turning 360 degrees (23 hrs, 56 mins).

A leap year is just taking care of the fact a year is not exactly 365 days. It is 365 1/4 days.

Yes, calendars HAD gotten out of whack compared to the seasons in times past without leap years.

Anonymous 0 Comments

A DAY is defined as high-noon to high-noon. A revolution is turning 360 degrees (23 hrs, 56 mins).

A leap year is just taking care of the fact a year is not exactly 365 days. It is 365 1/4 days.

Yes, calendars HAD gotten out of whack compared to the seasons in times past without leap years.