Happy new year everyone!
The year we use is the tropical year. This is measured from equinox to equinox and is 365.24219 days in length. Contrast this to our Gregorian calendar year which averages out to 365.2425 days.
The actual time it takes to make one orbit of the Sun is the sidereal year as measured from fixed star to fixed star. This is 365.2526363 days. This difference is due to the precession of the equinoxes.
@evilscientistca If we just made each day 24.0164 hours long, there'd be exactly 365 days in a year, every year. We get rid of that goofy leap year day and replace it with a leap 59 seconds every day!
Elegant.
@evilscientistca Would it be worse than this daylight savings time crap?
@evilscientistca Aron Ra is arguing with a flat-earther right now.
@pzmyers Oh man... the ignorance, it burns....
@pzmyers All I can say is Aron Ra is a far more patient person than I...
@pzmyers Though we'd have to convince people that noon (Sun on meridian) precessing day by day to midnight and back again is a good thing ;)