Solar Calendar Essay

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Solar Calendars: Telling Time by the Sun

Keeping track of time is one of the most important aspects of our lives today. Whether a person has to keep track of a work schedule or not, there are many parts of our lives that require scheduling and time tracking. Some examples are annual visits to the vet to keep pets healthy, taking our own medicines on time if needed, and making sure our cars have regular maintenance done on them. In order to keep all of these things flowing smoothly, we need a time keeping system. Hundreds of years ago, the system we still use today was instituted after some trial and error, and it is known at its most basic as a solar calendar. A solar calendar is, simply, a calendar that uses the sun as its main resource in order to track time (TMCS Resource Library). This is the most simple definition, however, just how and why it happens can …show more content…

Before the calendar we use now was put into place, a solar calendar called the Julian calendar was used. The Julian calendar worked well, but it had two flaws: First, it ran on the assumption that a year was exactly 365.25 days long, and it did not account for the fact that the Earth's axis actually rotates. The calendar worked as if the axis stayed in one position (Comins). Because of this, the Julian calendar began to run a bit off-kilter, and the calendar system that we know today as the Gregorian calendar was put into use. The Gregorian calendar makes better use of a process called intercalation that the Julian calendar. Intercalation means to devise a system of proper insertion of time into a set timekeeping system in order to keep it current, such as inserting an extra month or day into the calendar system. The Gregorian calendars makes use of the leap year, which is a form of intercalation, by not making calendar years divisible by the number 100 a leap year

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