ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Time cycles

Hey kiddo, do you know what time is? Time is what we use to measure how long something takes. Like how long it takes to brush your teeth or how long you have to wait until you can eat a snack.

Now, have you ever heard of time cycles? Time cycles are like patterns that we can see in how time works. Let's pretend that we're looking at a clock. The clock has numbers on it, right? Those numbers go from 1 to 12 and then start over again. This is a time cycle because it happens over and over again, in a cycle.

But time cycles can also be much longer than that. Scientists have studied how the Earth rotates around the Sun, which takes about 365 days to complete, and they call that a time cycle. They even divide that time cycle into 4 seasons with unique weather patterns.

Another example of a time cycle is the moon's phases. Have you ever noticed how the moon looks different every night? Sometimes it's a full circle, sometimes it's just a sliver, and sometimes it's not there at all! This change happens in a cycle, and it takes about 29.5 days to complete.

So, time cycles are like patterns in how time passes, whether it's a daily cycle like a clock, a yearly cycle like the Earth's rotation around the Sun, or a monthly cycle like the moon's phases. It's just like how patterns can repeat in things we see every day, like stripes on a shirt or the design on a carpet.