Why is it 365 days in a year??

Question

I'm looking for an educated, researched answer with sources!!! anybody up to it? the studious one gets ten points...but i don't need to tell you that do i?

um i'm not talking about revolutions or astronomical explanations. I mean why did they decide on THAT unit, what civilization decided on this system, and stuff like that. Not the obvious :-)

Answer 1

Actually, it's more like 365-1/4 days for the earth to travel around the sun, which is why we have to have a leap year, adding an extra day every four years so we don't get behind. Except its not exactly 365.25 days, more like 365.2422 days, so we don't have a leap year in years that end in 00, unless the year is also evenly divisible by 4, in which case we do have a leap year, like we did in 2000. But even that doesn't bring us into perfect alignment with the earth's revolution, so we also need the occasional leap second. Read more about it at the links below.

Answer 2

No sources But I can empirically prove that a year is 365 days.
Go outside your house or school and draw an east to west baseline. Every day at sunset put a stick in the ground that is lined up directly with the setting sun. If you live in the temperate northern latitudes then on the shortest day of the year the sun will set at the furthest point south of the east west line . To determine the length of a year count how many days it takes until it sets there again

Answer 3

You did ask about civilizations. Well, our calender has been set since at least the time Stonehenge was created and probably before that. Stonehenge keeps track of what part of the year it is by where the sun rises or sets. By coincidence, the sun is rising due east right now. It will only do it again six months from now. Our modern calender is called a Gregorian after Pope Gregory. Don't know which number. Before that a Julian calender was used. It was developed by Julius Caesar. He gets credit for coming up with the leap year.

Answer 4

The true length of a year on Earth is 365.2422 days, or about 365.25 days. We keep our calendar in sync with the seasons by having most years 365 days long but making justunder 1/4 of all years 366-day "leap" years.

A day is how long the earth takes to rotate around its own axis (24 hours). the Fact that it is 24 and not 10, which would make more sense in our decimal world goes all the way back to Egypt. The Eqyptians were fond of counting in base twelve (instead of base 10 which is commonly used today). This is thought to be because they counted finger joints instead of fingers. Each of your fingers has three joints, so if you count by pointing to finger joints with your thumb you can count to twelve on each hand. This might seem arbitrary, but is actually just a strange as counting in base ten simply because we have ten digits.

Answer 5

you're looking for complicated explanations when the answer is very simple - it takes 365 1/4 days for the earth to go around the sun. That's all there is to it. What more do you want? A day is a day.

Answer 6

well as u see 365 days actually did u know that scientists today found out in the quran evidence about the 365 years to what i know the romans started it we use 366 years cause of the luner year this website is the evidence of 365 days not 366 years

Answer 7

its not 365 but its 365 1/ 4 days as it takes these much days for the earth to rotate around the sun

Answer 8

Because 52 weeks equals 365 days in a year and that is not an accurate answers it's something like 365.3 days in a year and it's that way because god choose it to be that way

Answer 9

actually is 365 and 1/4 days a year because that's how long it takes the earth to go around the sun. this is why we have leap years, to compensate the 1/4 of the day every four years.

IN ADDITION

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/Numbers/Math/Mathematical_Thinking/calendar_calculations.htm

Answer 10

That's how long it takes the earth to make one revolution around the sun.