Solar calendar

High school (ages 12+)
Mathematics & Numbers

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/solar-calendar

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the calendar type?Solar calendar
2. What is the earliest known developers?Ancient Egyptians
3. Why did the ancient Egyptians use the star Sirius to make a calendar?They saw that Sirius appeared just before sunrise every year, and that time matched the Nile River flooding. This helped them plan farming.
4. How does the Gregorian calendar keep the seasons in the right place?It adds a small extra day, February 29th, every four years, so the calendar stays close to the Sun’s yearly journey.

Tropical year: The time it takes for the Earth to complete one orbit relative to the seasons (approx. 365.2422 days).
Heliacal rising: The first visible appearance of a star on the eastern horizon just before sunrise after a period of invisibility.
Epagomenal days: Extra days added at the end of the year in some ancient calendars, like the Egyptian calendar.
Leap year: A year with an extra day (February 29th) added to correct the calendar's drift from the solar year.