English
Maharashtra State BoardSSC (English Medium) 5th Standard
Textbook Solutions8143
Concept Notes & Videos216
Syllabus

A year

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Topics

  • Activity
  • A Year and Leap Year
  • Reasons Behind the Occurrence of Leap Years

Activity

To understand how the Earth revolves around the Sun while rotating on its axis and how this movement defines a year.

  • Place a candle at the center of a table to represent the Sun and draw a circle around it.
  • Position a globe anywhere on the circle, representing the Earth in its orbit.
  • Slowly move the globe along the circle, showing how the Earth revolves around the Sun while also rotating on its tilted axis.
  • Continue moving the globe until it completes one full circle, representing one full revolution of the Earth around the Sun (one year).
  • This demonstrates that the Earth takes approximately 365 days and 6 hours to complete one revolution, defining the length of a year.

A Year and Leap Year:

The period of time the earth takes to complete one revolution around the sun is called one year. There are about 365 days and 6 hours in a year.

In the Gregorian calendar, the year is 365 days. This means that it counts for 6 hours less every year. That is 24 hours, or one day every four years. To make up for this lost one day, February in the Gregorian calendar has an extra day every fourth year. That year is called a leap year, and it has 366 instead of 365 days, and February has 29 instead of 28 days.

Reasons Behind the Occurrence of Leap Years:

  1. Earth's Orbit Around the Sun: The Earth takes about 365.25 days to complete one full orbit around the Sun. This means a year is not exactly 365 days long, but a little longer.
  2. Adding Up the Extra Time: The extra 0.25 days (a quarter of a day) add up over four years. After four years, 0.25 days × 4 equals one whole extra day (0.25 × 4 = 1).
  3. Leap Year Rule: To maintain our calendar in alignment with the Earth's orbit, we add an extra day every four years. This is why the fourth year is a leap year. For example, 2016, 2020, and 2024 are leap years. This system helps keep our calendar accurate so the seasons occur simultaneously yearly.
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