This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Patrick (talk | contribs) at 19:26, 27 November 2002. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 19:26, 27 November 2002 by Patrick (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Daylight saving time (also called DST, or Summer Time) is the local time a country adopts for a portion of the year, usually an hour forward from its standard official time.
It is a system intended to "save" daylight (as opposed to wasting it by sleeping, say, while the sun shines). The official time is adjusted forward during the spring and summer months, so that the active hours of work and school will better match the hours of daylight.
DST is not universally accepted; many localities do not observe it. Nevertheless, proponents claim that DST helps more than it hurts. The primary claim is that it reduces energy consumption. Opponents claim that there's not enough benefit to justify needing to adjust clocks twice per year.
DST is particularly unpopular among people working in agriculture because the animals do not observe it, and thus the people are placed out of synchronization with the rest of the community, including school times, broadcast schedules, and the like.
DST is a long-standing controversy in Indiana, not only as an agricultural state, but also because the meridian separating the eastern and central time zones divides the state. In the past, neighboring communities sometimes ended up one or even two hours apart. In the current compromise, the state has three kinds of time zones: most of the state, 77 counties, is on Eastern Standard Time but does not use DST; 10 counties near Chicago are on Central Standard Time and do use DST; and 5 counties near Ohio are on Eastern Standard time but do use DST.
For fairly obvious reasons, DST is a temperate zone practice: day lengths in the tropics do not vary enough to justify DST.
The amount of the time shift varies, but one hour is the most common. The dates of the beginning and ending of DST also vary, but it commonly begins in the Northern Hemisphere at 2:00 AM on either the first Sunday in April or the last Sunday in March, and ends at 2:00 AM on the last Sunday in October. In the Southern Hemisphere, the beginning and ending dates are switched.
The mnemonic "Spring forward, Fall back", tells how to reset clocks when the time switches.
The expression "Daylight savings time" (with the extra s) is a common alternate form, considered a usage error by some.
It is sometimes asserted that DST was first proposed by Benjamin Franklin in a letter to the editors of the Journal of Paris. However, Franklin was not proposing DST, but rather just that people should get up and go to bed earlier.
See Also: British Summer Time
External Links
- Straightforward, good-looking discussion of DST, suitable for anybody of about age ten or over
- DST changeover times throughout the world
- World Time Server
- Time Zone Converter
Links about changing or abolishing DST: