Printer Friendly
Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus - The Free Dictionary
3,914,676,395 visitors served.
forum Join the Word of the Day Mailing List For webmasters
?
Dictionary/
thesaurus
Medical
dictionary
Legal
dictionary
Financial
dictionary
Acronyms
 
Idioms
Encyclopedia
Wikipedia
encyclopedia
?

Tropical Year

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Wikipedia 0.01 sec.
tropical year, time between successive vernal equinoxes equinox , either of two points on the celestial sphere where the ecliptic and the celestial equator intersect. The vernal equinox, also known as "the first point of Aries," is the point at which the sun appears to cross the celestial equator from south to north.
..... Click the link for more information.
; 365 days, 5 hr, 48 min, 46 sec of mean solar time (see solar time solar time, time defined by the position of the sun. The solar day is the time it takes for the sun to return to the same meridian in the sky. Local solar time is measured by a sundial.
..... Click the link for more information.
). The tropical year is the basis of the year year, time required for the earth to complete one orbit about the sun. The solar or tropical year is measured relative to the sun and is equal to 365 days, 5 hr, 48 min, 46 sec of mean solar time (see solar time).
..... Click the link for more information.
 used in the Gregorian calendar calendar [Lat., from Kalends], system of reckoning time for the practical purpose of recording past events and calculating dates for future plans. The calendar is based on noting ordinary and easily observable natural events, the cycle of the sun through the seasons
..... Click the link for more information.
.
tropical year [′träp·ə·kəl ′yir]
(astronomy)
A unit of time equal to the period of one revolution of the earth about the sun measured between successive vernal equinoxes; it is 365.2422 mean solar days or 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes 46 seconds. Also known as astronomical year.

Tropical Year 

the time interval between two successive passages of the sun through the vernal equinox. The tropical year contains 365.242196 mean solar days. It is the basis of the modern calendar; a complete change of seasons occurs during the tropical year. In astronomy the beginning of the tropical year is taken as the moment when the mean longitude of the sun (decreased by 20.5”, the value of the constant of aberration) is 280°. The year measured from this moment is called the Besselian year. Its beginning coincides roughly with the beginning of the calendar year.



Want to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit the webmaster's page for free fun content.
?Page tools
Printer friendly
Cite / link
Feedback
Mentioned in?  References in periodicals archive?   Encyclopedia browser?   Full browser?
No references found
 
Southern Vietnam is tropical year ''round and people dress comfortably and casually.
In spite of the simplicity of this action, our time position is due to the duration of a tropical year watched by the IERS (International Earth Rotation Service) that updates the national institutes and sets the variations of the Universal Time Coordinates (UTC) to keep the earth's rotation linked with the day.
It is a place that remains tropical year long and the fishing and golfing possibilities never ends.
 
 
 
Encyclopedia
?

Terms of Use | Privacy policy | Feedback | Advertise with Us | Copyright © 2012 Farlex, Inc.
Disclaimer
All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional.