I’ve researched it but it’s exact purpose eludes me.
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They’re confusing for Earth because they’re so close, but they’re more useful for other planets
How long is a day on Venus?
Well solar noon to solar noon is 116.75 Earth day, so does Venus rotate on its axis 116x slower than Earth? But its year is 224 earth days so you start getting weird combinations.
Venus actually rotates on its axis in 243 Earth days (1 sidereal Venusian day) but because it rotates backwards relative to most other planets it causes its Solar day to be significantly shorter than its sidereal day while Earths rotation/orbit combine to make the solar day slightly longer than the sidereal day
Sidereal day lets you figure out equatorial velocity and the equatorial bulge that comes from that, its a fixed value that isn’t dependent on other things. Solar days are dependent upon the sidereal day and the orbital period to determine when the sun returns to the same spot over a specific point on the planet but if something like Mercury that’s really booking it around the sun it might take over a solar year for 1 solar day to complete and that gets odd
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