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By roughly how much is the solar day longer than the sidereal day?
AAbout 4 seconds
BAbout 40 minutes
CAbout 4 minutes
DAbout 4 hours
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: C. About 4 minutes
1. A sidereal day is one turn of Earth measured against the distant stars.
2. A solar day needs a little extra turning because Earth has moved along its orbit.
3. That extra turn takes about 4 minutes, so the solar day is 4 minutes longer.
_Source: OpenStax Astronomy (CC BY 4.0), Ch 4 "Earth, Moon, and Sky" and Ch 5 "Radiation and Spectra", section 4.3 Keeping Time_
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