How Earth Moves

Verticle Lines on Earth are longitudes; Horizontal lines are latitude.

The Earth rotates counter-clockwise with a tilted degree of 23.5. The tilting causes 4 seasons. In the northern hemisphere, it is winter when the Earth is closest to the Sun.

 

 

 

What is a Day?

Sidereal Day – the time it takes the earth to rotate 360 degrees around its axis. Sidereal means to pertaining to the stars. On Earth, a sidereal day lasts for 23 hours 56 minutes.

Solar Day – the time it takes the earth to rotate 360 degrees around its axis so that the Sun appears on the same position. The Earth will take a longer time to reach the solar day. How long? It depends because 1) we orbit in an elliptical shape with an inconsistent speed 2) the earth is tilted at 23.5 degree angle.

The missing 4 minutes has nothing to do with leap years.