Tropical Years to Months (yr (trop) to mo)
1 tropical year equals 11.99998981 months (rounded).
How to convert tropical years to months
To convert tropical years to months, multiply the number of tropical years by 11.99998981. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply months by 0.08333340406 (rounded).
months = tropical years × 11.99998981
Example: 10 tropical years = 119.9998981 months.
Months and years are not constant. This site uses the average Gregorian year of 365.2425 days, so one 'year' converts to 365.2425 days, not 365; use 'common year' for exactly 365 days.
Approximate value. Standards for the tropical year varied by place and period, so this converter uses the most commonly cited value. Treat results as estimates, not exact figures.
About these units
Tropical Year (yr (trop))
About 365.24219 days, the time between successive spring equinoxes. The Gregorian calendar approximates it.
Tropical comes from a Greek word meaning turning, and this year is measured by the cycle of the seasons: the time for the Sun to return to the same ecliptic longitude. The mean value at the start of 2000 was 365.2421897 days, or 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes 45.19 seconds. Individual intervals between March equinoxes wander by minutes, so the mean is what is normally quoted.
Hipparchus timed equinoxes in the second century BC and arrived at 365 days 5 hours 55 minutes 12 seconds, a little long. The Alfonsine Tables of 1252 gave 365 days 5 hours 49 minutes 16 seconds, and this value guided the Gregorian reform of 1582, which was needed because the equinox had slipped about ten days from its date at the Council of Nicaea in 325.
Kepler's Rudolphine Tables of 1627 came within a second or so of the modern figure, and Simon Newcomb's 1898 value of about 365.24219878 days served the national almanacs until 1983. The Gregorian calendar averages 365.2425 days, which tracks the tropical year closely.
1 tropical year = 31,556,925.22 seconds (approximately).
Sources: Wikipedia: Tropical year; NASA Earth Fact Sheet
Month (mo)
One twelfth of an average Gregorian year: 30.436875 days. Calendar months actually range from 28 to 31 days.
Month and Moon are cognates, and the unit began as the Moon's cycle of phases, about 29.53 days from one new moon to the next. The trouble is that 12 of these fall short of a solar year, so calendars have had to choose. The Islamic calendar stays purely lunar, so its year is about 11 days shorter than the solar year, while the Hebrew calendar is lunisolar, using a 19-year cycle with an extra month. Even the start of a lunar month is still debated between observing the crescent and calculating it.
Gregorian months are a compromise that drifted far from the Moon. Their lengths run from 28 to 31 days, and this site uses their mean of 30.436875 days, one twelfth of the average year. The names also keep Roman history: September to December preserve the Latin numerals for seven to ten, since they were originally the seventh to tenth months, and Quintilis and Sextilis were renamed for Julius Caesar and Augustus. When a contract says month, check whether it means a calendar month or thirty days.
1 month = 2,629,746 seconds (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Month; Wikipedia: Lunar calendar
Related conversions
- Months to tropical years (reverse)
- Tropical years to seconds
- Tropical years to minutes
- Tropical years to hours
- Tropical years to days
- Tropical years to weeks
- Tropical years to years
- Seconds to months
- Minutes to months
- Hours to months
- Days to months
- Weeks to months
- Years to months
- Milliseconds to months
- Microseconds to months
- Nanoseconds to months
- Decades to months
- Centuries to months
- Millennia to months
See all time units.