Year - GCSE Maths Definition

A year is a unit of time. Scientifically, this is approximately 365.25 days. It is the time it takes the earth to complete one orbit around the sun. Human beings measure a year as 365 days (52 weeks and 1 day), but due to this being slightly shorter than the earth's orbit, an extra day is added to the (Gregorian) calendar every four years - years that are multiples of 4 (e.g. 2024, 2028, 2032, ...). Such years are called leap years. However, over thousands of years, this is still not accurate enough for the time of the earth's orbit, so any year ending in 00 are only leap years if they are divisible by 400.

In GCSE Mathematics, understanding how long a year is, as 365 days, or 366 in a leap year, helps solve problems involving periods of time that could involve calculating ages, or finding the future value of savings or an investment. You would be expected to know the 12 months that make a year, and how many days are in each.