why are there 24 hours in a day when half of it is night?

Answer 1

Er I think you might do better to ask this question in physics not biology. It takes approximately 24 hours for the earth to make a complete turn. Hence why a day is 24 hours. It takes approx 365 1/4 days for the earth to circle the sun and whilst it circles the sun it turns on it's own axis every 24 hours. Hence why we have a 'leap' year every four years to allow for the extra day that has accrued.

Answer 2

A day is the term we use to say how long the Earth take to spin around completely once.

It takes the Earth 24 hours to rotate completely once on its axis. There for there are 24 hours in a day.

But the Earth is on a 23 degree tilt. This mean for half the year the bottom half get more light (summer) and the top half gets less (winter) and for the other six months its vice versa.

Answer 3

Day is a term originally used to designate "a period of time".

Modern day actually defines a day as 24 hours. So, by definition a day is 24 hours regardless of where the sun is.

Answer 4

Can i start by saying

that the Earth rotates around its own north to south axis once every 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4.091 seconds (one day), and around the Sun once every 365.2564 days (one year). so in theory there aren’t 24hrs in the day.
thats why we leap years.
A leap year (or intercalary year) is a year containing an extra day (or, in case of lunisolar calendars, an extra month) in order to keep the calendar year synchronised with the astronomical or seasonal year.

Now a day, as opposed to night, is commonly defined as the period during which sunlight directly reaches the ground, assuming that there are no local obstacles. Two effects make days on average longer than nights. The Sun is not a point, but has an apparent size of about 32 minutes of arc. Additionally, the atmosphere refracts sunlight in such a way that some of it reaches the ground even when the Sun is below the horizon by about 34 minutes of arc. So the first light reaches the ground when the centre of the Sun is still below the horizon by about 50 minutes of arc. The difference in time depends on the angle at which the Sun rises and sets (itself a function of latitude), but amounts to almost seven minutes at least.

Answer 5

Days - When the word "days" is used as a method of counting, it means calendar days unless otherwise stated.

The word day is used for several different units of time based on the rotation of the Earth around its axis. The most important one follows the apparent motion of the Sun across the sky. The reason for this apparent motion is the rotation of the Earth around its axis, as well as the revolution of the Earth in its orbit around the Sun.

A day, as opposed to night, is commonly defined as the period during which sunlight directly reaches the ground, assuming that there are no local obstacles.

Answer 6

Depending on where you are in the world and what season it is, it can be daylight all day or night all day (northern Canada or Antarctica). There are 24 hours in the day because that is the time it takes for the Earth to rotate once on it's axis.

Answer 7

I think it actually has to do with the advance of technology. If I remember correctly e.g. the romans had a 12 hour day from dawn to dusk, the rest was night. And the lengths of an hour during the day varied according to the seasons, so an hour in summer was longer than an hour in winter.
With changing from a society mainly influenced by agriculture to one mainly influence by technology it became desirable to standardize things. Also who, nowadays goes to bed when it gets dark? In addition, think of all the people who work on night shifts. Would you want to get paid less because you work your 8 hours at night instead of during the day. Or would you be willing to work longer? Or would you want to close hospitals, restaurants, supermarkets when it gets dark? All those things made it necessary to standardize the hour during the day and measure it exactly.
Anyway, I never get to sleep 12 hours a day, so I definitely want to measure more than that.

Answer 8

because it take approximately 24 hours for the earth to rotate once, so after 24 hours the earth is in the same position again. It doesnt account for hours of daylight!!!!!!!

Answer 9

It depends on your latitude. Every spot on the earth gets 6 months of sunlight and night. The variations of hr of each through the day depends on which latitude you live on, because of the tilt of the Earth. For instance on the equator you will always have 12 hrs of day and 12hrs night ever day of the year or 365 sunrises and sunsets/year. On the poles you will always have 6 months of day and 6 months night or 1 sunrise and 1 sunset/year..

Answer 10

Its technical and usage related - day has two meanings !
As a definition a day is the time taken by the eathh for one revolution on its axis. IN the everyday usage - day is also referred to the time when the sun is there.