5 ms·
Wait a second.. is Ben Franklin claiming that he has discovered that the sun shines as soon as it rises?
by yeison 14y ago
Wait a second.. is Ben Franklin claiming that he has discovered that the sun shines as soon as it rises?
- stretchwithme 14y agoits really, really true. :-)
- ithkuil 14y ago"And, having repeated this observation the three following mornings, I found always precisely the same result." that's the scientific approach! Never simply trust your own eyes but repeat the experiment :-)
- tantalor 14y agoNo, he's being rhetorical. The point is about light economy. Only a fool (i.e., somebody who doesn't understand how daylight works) would think wasting daylight is a good idea. Are you a fool? No, obviously not, so you agree with Franklin that daylight savings makes sense.
- charlieok 14y agosaving :)
- erikschoster 14y agoI'd be interested to know a little more about the historical context surrounding this piece - was Franklin responding to some well known problem of the time like a rise in the price of candle wax or lamp oil? The essay seems like an attempt to encourage people to conserve resources using the vehicles of sarcasm and humor. I wonder how common it was at the time to wake up around noon though? Edit: tantalor sums it up better. :-)
- tantalor 14y agoDon't know specifically, but I think lighting was much more expensive then than now.
- philwelch 14y ago> I wonder how common it was at the time to wake up around noon though? Despite all his quotes about "early to rise", Franklin was known, during his time in Paris, as a party animal. This provides a lot of context to those jokes about waking up around noon.