I write about weather and climate related topics (and study them too)
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At some point during my slumber tonight I am going to “lose an hour” of sleep. My scout leader wife was diligently emailing parents of Girl Scout Troop 1343 reminding them to set their clocks forward tonight so that they do not miss the meeting tomorrow. Here in Georgia, Daylight Saving Time(hereafter referred to as DST) starts Sunday, March 12th at 2:00 am and ends at 2:00 am on Sunday, November 5th. If you are interested in where it starts around the world, this website is useful. Professor Josh Durkee of Western Kentucky University suggested DST would be an interesting topic to write about, but I always want to increase science literacy with my discussion. Here are four scientific (and not so scientific) things you need to know about DST.
In this Thursday, Nov. 3, 2016 photo, Dan LaMoore sizes hands for an 8-foot diameter silhouette clock at Electric Time Co., in Medfield, Mass. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
There is no “s”: There is no “s” at the end of Saving though you will certainly hear people refer to it as “savings.” It has been suggested that the misuse of the term may evolve from the common usage of the term “savings” in daily vernacular.
The day is not actually longer: You will often hear statements like “the day will be an hour longer tomorrow.” The duration of a day is roughly 24 hours. The 24-hour solar day is how long it takes for a location on the earth to rotate under the sun from one point to the exact point. There is also a lunar day that is related to the tidal cycle (two low and high tides every 24 hours and 50 minutes). According to the NOAA ocean services website,
Lunar day is the time it takes for a specific site on the Earth to rotate from an exact point under the moon to the same point under the moon….The lunar day is 50 minutes longer than a solar day because the moon revolves around the Earth in the same direction that the Earth rotates around its axis. So, it takes the Earth an extra 50 minutes to “catch up” to the moon
The length of the day is the same, however, the number of actual “daylight hours” is adjusted. No daylight is actually saved in a physical sense. According to timeanddate.com
Less than 40% of the countries in the world use DST. Some countries use it to make better use of the natural daylight in the evenings. The difference in light is most noticeable in the areas at a certain distance from Earth’s equator.
There are scholarly studies of the “Pros and Cons”: A study in the
