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Spring forwards, fall backwards...
7 Answers
If you ask people how long we spend in winter time (GMT) and how long in summer time (BST), most people will automatically say something along the lines of "Well, it's obvious, isn't it - six months of each". But if you check, you'll find that we're actually only in winter for five months, while we're seven in summer (and thank heaven for that - it's bad enough as it is when we suddenly plunge into the murky depths of winter at the end of October, but a blessed release when we rise into the sparkling bright days of spring at the end of March. It still seems longer!)
But is there any particular reason for this happy imbalance, weighted heavily in favour of summer?
If you respond to this, let me know how you feel about ending this madness, and staying with BST all year round. Thanks.
But is there any particular reason for this happy imbalance, weighted heavily in favour of summer?
If you respond to this, let me know how you feel about ending this madness, and staying with BST all year round. Thanks.
Answers
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I am in favour of continual BST, or even better, double daylight saving – whereby in summer we are +2 hours on GMT.
I really cannot understand why the whole world bases its 24 hour clock timing on the sun being directly overhead at 12 noon.
Many years ago, on my first visit to the Caribbean, I was stuck by the fact that sunrise was at around 6am and sunset at 6pm. Since I was on holiday and did not get up until well past 9am, I had already lost 3 hours of sunshine. Even the locals getting out at 8am had missed 2 hours sunshine.
My reason for wanting the sun directly overhead at 2pm is that it is more closely aligned to the middle of the active human day.
I really cannot understand why the whole world bases its 24 hour clock timing on the sun being directly overhead at 12 noon.
Many years ago, on my first visit to the Caribbean, I was stuck by the fact that sunrise was at around 6am and sunset at 6pm. Since I was on holiday and did not get up until well past 9am, I had already lost 3 hours of sunshine. Even the locals getting out at 8am had missed 2 hours sunshine.
My reason for wanting the sun directly overhead at 2pm is that it is more closely aligned to the middle of the active human day.
“I really cannot understand why the whole world bases its 24 hour clock timing on the sun being directly overhead at 12 noon.”
Because, Hymie, (making some minor allowances for the unevenness of the earth’s orbit and axial tilt) that’s precisely what the definition of “noon” is !!
Standard time across the UK was set up as recently as 1847. Until then each town or village maintained its own version of “noon” which varied by about 30 minutes from east to west. But the coming of the railways meant a standard time was needed and “Railway Time”(based on Greenwich Mean Time) was adopted.
Because the earth is split into time zones for convenience the time shown on the clock will not coincide precisely with the Sun’s highest point in the sky but instead will vary a little either side. Each time zone covers 15 degrees and so ideally they should end 7.5 degrees either side of the line of longitude on which they are based. But of course the time zones usually relate to a group of countries so as to make matters more convenient. This works fine for the UK and Ireland as they lie roughly between the longitudes nine degrees west to two degrees east of zero degrees longitude. British Summer Time is really appropriate for longitudes 7.5 degrees east to 22.5 degrees east – that is none of the UK at all. (As an aside, the time zone which is one hour ahead of GMT is also inappropriate for all of Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Luxemburg, Holland and all but a tiny bit of eastern France. All these countries lie west of Longitude 7.5 degrees east).
Your Caribbean adventure was not a fair comparison. All tropical locations get near enough twelve hours of day and night throughout the year. In parts of the UK there can be almost nineteen hours of daylight in midsummer and nobody can realistically take advantage of the whole lot, whatever time of day you call it when the sun rises.
I believe the reason that BST covers seven months of the year is that its originator, William Willett, saw the idea as “Daylight Saving Time” (a misnomer if ever there was one) and the period April to October was the maximum that would be tolerated in order to get the bill through Parliament.
My own view is that really is no point messing about with the clocks twice a year and that the UK should remain on GMT throughout the year. It cannot “save daylight” and the argument that accident numbers are reduced by lighter evenings (at the expense of darker mornings) has never been substantiated. The last time “GMT+1” was tried coincided with the introduction of the drink driving laws so a comparison was not all that useful.
Because, Hymie, (making some minor allowances for the unevenness of the earth’s orbit and axial tilt) that’s precisely what the definition of “noon” is !!
Standard time across the UK was set up as recently as 1847. Until then each town or village maintained its own version of “noon” which varied by about 30 minutes from east to west. But the coming of the railways meant a standard time was needed and “Railway Time”(based on Greenwich Mean Time) was adopted.
Because the earth is split into time zones for convenience the time shown on the clock will not coincide precisely with the Sun’s highest point in the sky but instead will vary a little either side. Each time zone covers 15 degrees and so ideally they should end 7.5 degrees either side of the line of longitude on which they are based. But of course the time zones usually relate to a group of countries so as to make matters more convenient. This works fine for the UK and Ireland as they lie roughly between the longitudes nine degrees west to two degrees east of zero degrees longitude. British Summer Time is really appropriate for longitudes 7.5 degrees east to 22.5 degrees east – that is none of the UK at all. (As an aside, the time zone which is one hour ahead of GMT is also inappropriate for all of Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Luxemburg, Holland and all but a tiny bit of eastern France. All these countries lie west of Longitude 7.5 degrees east).
Your Caribbean adventure was not a fair comparison. All tropical locations get near enough twelve hours of day and night throughout the year. In parts of the UK there can be almost nineteen hours of daylight in midsummer and nobody can realistically take advantage of the whole lot, whatever time of day you call it when the sun rises.
I believe the reason that BST covers seven months of the year is that its originator, William Willett, saw the idea as “Daylight Saving Time” (a misnomer if ever there was one) and the period April to October was the maximum that would be tolerated in order to get the bill through Parliament.
My own view is that really is no point messing about with the clocks twice a year and that the UK should remain on GMT throughout the year. It cannot “save daylight” and the argument that accident numbers are reduced by lighter evenings (at the expense of darker mornings) has never been substantiated. The last time “GMT+1” was tried coincided with the introduction of the drink driving laws so a comparison was not all that useful.
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