3 ms·
> The idea was that in the winter there would be fewer hours with the sun up, and it made sense to put those hours in a more useful part of the day. Daylight S
by haberman 14y ago
> The idea was that in the winter there would be fewer hours with the sun up, and it made sense to put those hours in a more useful part of the day.
Daylight Savings time happens during the summer, not the winter. Winter time is unadjusted and tracks a true solar day. Summer time is adjusted, and indeed it's adjusted in the direction you favor (to provide more daylight hours at night).
- Firehed 14y agoTracks a true solar day? Is there actually a scientific definition of when a day starts and ends? As far as I can tell skimming Wikipedia, it's simply 86400 seconds. Certainly by my body clock, a "true solar day" is when I'm on DST.
- mooism2 14y agoMidday GMT is defined to be when the mean sun is directly over the prime meridian. ("Mean sun" as opposed to "apparent sun" because of the Earth being a naturally occurring celestial object, rather than an idealised mathematical model. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equation_of_time http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equation_of_time .)
- seanmcdirmid 14y agoI live in China and we don't have daylight savings time. The sun rises at around 4AM in the summer, which really messes up my sleep habits if I forget to close the blinds before bed. Winters are about right.
- wr1472 14y agoYour problem is much more easily solved: remember to close the blinds.
- mistercow 14y ago>Winter time is unadjusted and tracks a true solar day. That really depends on where you are in the time zone. If you're right at the edge, you may be closer to tracking a true solar day in the summer.