What is time and how long is a year?
Tick… tock… tick… tock. Time to talk about time!
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Humans use clocks and calendars to measure and record the passage of time.
Clocks measure time in seconds, minutes, and hours. There are 60 seconds in one minute,
60 minutes in one hour, and 24 hours in one full day.
To measure longer time, there are 7 days in one week, and 52 weeks in one year.
The months are all different numbers of days: some have 30 days, and some have 31,
while one month, February, has only 28 days…
except for every fourth year, called a Leap Year, when it has 29 days.
It can get confusing!
But how did we come to those numbers?
Calendars are based on astronomical cycles of the Earth.
One day is the length of time required for the Earth to make one full rotation on its axis.
A month is loosely based on the amount of time required
for the moon to complete one orbit around the Earth.
One year is the amount of time it takes for the Earth to complete one full orbit around the sun,
or.....................the time you have to wait between birthdays.
See for yourself: Which months have 31 days?
There’s an easy trick to figuring out which months are the longer ones.
Make two fists and put them next to each other.
Starting on the first knuckle of your left hand,
count off the months on the top of the knuckle and the little divot between knuckles.
The months that land on your knuckles have 31 days, the ones that fall into the divot have 30
(or in February’s case, 28).
Use this “hand-y” trick and you’ll never forget that June 31st isn’t a real day!
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