On 31 Oct 2005 04:51:59 -0800, "Carpenter" wrote:


Shirley Thebaglady wrote:
How we remember- FALL back
SPRING ahead, as to which way we turn our clocks.
We always change ours the night before we go to bed.



First of all, its not the government that is the cause of the
Phenomenon. It is basic physics and the laws of the universe.
Specifically, God or Mother Nature (if you prefer) messed up a bit
when they tilted the axis of rotation of the earth 23.5 degrees
relative to the plane of the earth's orbit around the sun.

Before we had Daylight Savings Time, there was year-round Standard
Time, an invention (by man) to keep the countries railroad schedules
in sync. The four time zones in the continental US were roughly
divided along the lines of the 15 degree meridians that extend from
pole to pole and start at the prime Meridian in Greenwich, England as
the 0 degree reference point.

At the time, France fought bitterly to have the prime meridian begin
in Paris, but the English prevailed and Greenwich is where it stayed.

To get the Meridians in synch, local noon was defined as the time a
point equidistant between the 15 degree meridians experienced sun
transit (the time when the sun crossed the meridian). If you lived
near the eastern edge of the time zone boundary, the sun would rise
(and set) a few minutes early relative to your zone. Conversely, if
you lived near the western edge of your time zone boundary, the sun
would rise (and set) a few minutes later. The continental US had 4
major time zones spaced 5, 6, 7, and 8 hours ahead of Greenwich time
(Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific time respectively).

Some countries, Iran for example, say "to hell with standard time" and
are 30 minutes offset from the world's time zones.

This worked great for years and kept the railroads and telegraph
operators happy. (Western Union kept the whole thing in sync).
Farmers still awoke with the sun and the rooster though, and didn't
pay much attention to man's invention of applied standards.

Our society became more complex and Daylight Savings Time (now called
Daylight Time) was invented originally to save coal for the war
effort. (More light in the evening = less electricity needed = less
coal consumption).

Historically, Congress has sometimes tinkered with the start and stop
dates for DT. Sometimes this messes up a lot of electronic equipment
like VCR's and computers whose designers assumed the dates were
"carved in stone,

Those that advocate year round DST are trying to bend the laws of
nature in a way that doesn't fit with the activities of man. It will
never fit the activities of man because that extra hour of daylight in
the evening will always be "stolen" from those schoolchildren waiting
for the buses in the morning.

You can't have it both ways as there is simply less daylight in the
northern hemisphere during the winter months. Hence it becomes a
political debate as to whose ox is gored.

Beachcomber