5 ms·
I'm curious to know, what is the point of linking to solar time? What advantage is there to the Sun reaching its highest point at 12 'o clock? Most people are
by kmm 8y ago
I'm curious to know, what is the point of linking to solar time? What advantage is there to the Sun reaching its highest point at 12 'o clock?
Most people are awake for about 6 hours before noon, and about 10 hours after. Most social events also happen after the work day. So our day is already shifted from what would logically follow from our clock. Being on +2 already feels like a compromise between the two.
I'd love it if getting up at 4am and going to bed at 8pm was the norm, and solar noon was the exact midpoint of the day, but as I am not a recluse I cannot start that trend, and therefore shifting the timezones seems more reasonable.
- zzo38computer 8y agoOne advantage of solar noon is use of sundials.
- jiveturkey 8y agocan’t tell if you’re being funny or serious. making it all the more funny. either way, brilliant!
- stephengillie 8y agoYes, let's base our society on an archaic device that can't even accurately tell the time.
- masonic 8y agoI, for one, am getting sick of rotating my sundial twice a year.
- cmroanirgo 8y agoAs I presume you know, Solar noon represents the highest point of the Sun in the day. It seems fitting that the 'work hours' should be 4 hrs either side of that (8am-4pm). Being a 'sunlover' I'm regularly up before dawn so that I can catch the first rays of Sun as it crosses the horizon. To me it's the most beautiful part of the day. Unfortunately, we have semi-arbitrarily defined 'zones' that fluctuate 1hr because of the propagandist notion that extra daylight at the end of the day means more people will be outside enjoying the Sun. This DST causes my work day to suddenly shift so that I'm forced to go to work earlier than normal, & I miss a lot of sunrises as a result. I like this idea of solar noon for times... Especially for overseas communications too... because we'd just need to know the longitude of the person to know their exact time. (Currently, I'm forced to use timeanddate.com to work out relative overseas times). Where I am, the state to the North of me doesn't follow DST (Qld), whereas mine does (nsw) and it creates havoc around the beginning/end of DST. So, at least for me, there are three reasons to use solar noon based time rather than the current system. I'm sure I could come up with more. That said, I go to bed early too, and acknowledge that isn't the way most people live.
- azernik 8y agoDST may be bad, but discrete (as opposed to continuous) time zones are not. Having decent-sized economic and social zones where clocks don't change at all is extremely useful, and is in fact the main reason time zones were invented. I sure don't want to have to think about a few minutes of time difference between Oakland and Sacramento, after all.
- nikanj 8y agoMost working professionals I know are working 9 to 5, not 8 to 4.
- gdfasfklshg4 8y agoThis is country dependent. Across the Nordics for example 8 to 4 is very common.
- stephengillie 8y agoThat's only 7 hours. I don't know anyone who only works 9-5. Many either work 8-5 or 9-6. (Lunches aren't paid, that's a WA State law.)
- azinman2 8y agoExcept we have more time in the evenings after work than we do in the mornings before work. To me work should be 10-6.
- stephengillie 8y agoDo you mean 9-6 or 10-7? I've done a 10-7 shift, it's miserable. Waste half your morning, and half your evening. You have to get ready for work when stores and banks are just opening, and you get home just as those shops are closing. I prefer 7-4 because it leaves a bit of late afternoon and the whole evening.
- hamandcheese 8y agoIt’s possible to work 9-5 and still eat lunch.
- eridius 8y agoI don't know a single person that is awake at 6am. Where does this "most people" claim come from?