amitkmr988

· 22 Dec 2021

Follow Following

How many days are in a year?

The question of many days is there in a year has been a concern over years now, though some schools of thought and done due diligence in coming with figures that seem to be true, but there to be some decimal variations in their results. I'll love to drive you into some of their speculations and in the end, will get to know the number of days a year is made up of.

Let's say a year on Earth is 365.2422 days or approximately 365.25 days. This is to ensure our calendar corresponds with the seasons by having 365 days for most years, but just under a quarter of the 366 days in leap years. Let's look at how some schools of thought have said concerning this matter.
How many days are there in a calendar year?

How many days are there in one year? The average person will say 365 days, NASA said its 365.26 days long, the National Institute of Standards Technology said its 365.242196, and some physicists say its 365.26 days. All these are facts given by scientists but it seems that they couldn't agree on what the exact time is. To find out what is the most precise number of days in a year, we need to look at the four principal years that are in use today.

1. Julian Calendar/year

The average duration of a year is 365.25 days in the Julian calendar. 365 days in a landslide calendar 366 days in a leap year. That's to say, it takes the earth 365.25 days to rotate around the sun, which is why we have a leap year every four years.  The Julian year was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 B.C.  However, it seems not very precise because there was a counting error that occurred when during its first early use making the third year a leap year. This is also the reason why some holidays and fixed dates are not in sync with each other. How be it, Julius Caesar ordered that it it will be the standard calendar at that time because the priests abused the calculations to manipulate the politics in Rome.

2. Anomalistic Year

For the minimalistic year, time measurement is based on the number of days it takes the Earth to reach the closest point to the sun, which is 365.259636 days. But the problem with the anomalistic year is that the Earth's orbit is different every year. Therefore, if calculations are based on this point, you will get a wrong calculation as well.

3. Tropical Year

For the tropical year, the number of days in a year is based on the period from spring equinox to another spring equinox, and this is approximately 365.2422 days. This is also the most common measure of year used by people. However, just like the anomalistic year, the tropical year is not without its defect; the Earth wobbles like a spinning top making the equator shift slightly which, in turn, changes the equinox as well.

4. Sidereal Year

For The sidereal Year, the number of days is around 365.26 days long and based on the entire cosmos making it the most fixed frame you can use to measure time. It is also shorter by four minutes than the regular 24-hour time we use. However, this is what NASA and the astronomers use although it is imperfect as well.

From Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Jonathan McDowell said that although the so-called fixed stars do not stay permanently where they are, they just use it to point their telescopes to the same spot every day. He added that if you view time in light of the theory of relativity, it passes differently on Earth compared to other regions of the universe. Thus, no one knows what the precise time is yet.