The year is a unit of time that is a multiple of an SI unit and uses the symbol a.
The Julian year is made up of exactly 365.25 days – each with 60 x 60 x 24 seconds (86,400 seconds). The .25 days is worked into the system by counting 366 days once every 4 cycles. This is known as a “leap year” and the “leap day” happens at the end of February.
The term year represents the length of time it takes for the earth to complete one full cycle around the sun. Each planet therefore has a different year length.
To track years, humanity has assigned an incremental numbering system. Depending on which culture, religion or part of the world you are from or follow, this number varies. The most common numbering system suggests we are in the 21st century – i.e. in the 2000’s. This system started 0 AD (Anno Domini – which translates from Latin as “In the year of our Lord”). Time before this is referred to as BC (before Christ) and the number increases as you go further into history (like a negative number would).
The tropical year is a unit of time that is a multiple of an SI unit. We have used the symbol at.
The average tropical year up to the year 2000 was 365.2422 days of 86400 seconds.
The phrase “tropical” comes from the Greek for “turn”; tropikos. Following this, and where the “turn” referred to is the same as that defining the tropics of Capricorn and Cancer (the extreme latitudes North and South where the sun can still appear directly overhead or perpendicular to the Earth’s surface); a tropical year is known as the time it takes the sun to complete a full cycle of seasons and return to the same relative position to the observer on Earth.
In 1627, Johannes Kepler used the findings of Tycho Brahe and Waltherus (the Rudolphine Tables) to establish the mean tropical year as 365 solar days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 45 seconds.