Happy New Year? (A Few Minutes or A Day or 12 hours)

Happy New Year?

I was listening to the December 22nd SKU podcast (SKU = Skeptics Guide to the Universe) and afterward found myself wandering around the Internet trying to see just what the difference between a Sidereal Year and a Tropical Year is.

Today's SpikedMath.COM comic: http://spikedmath.com/362.html addresses this difference.

Here is an explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year#Sidereal.2C_tropical.2C_and_anomalistic_years.

This explanation not only covers the Solar Year and the Sidereal Year but also the Anomalistic Year (my favorite).

And to get a really nice feel for what time it is visit this site:

http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/sidereal.html

The most satisfying answer is like the comic strip (a few minutes) 4 minutes 41.2324 seconds to be exact :o)