h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I can't really add anything to the subject of this piece. Does anyone else think we are mad for adjusting all 26 clocks in each home twice yearly? And, I have never found anyone who can give me a reason for doing it. Being serious for a minute, I feel there is a very real cost in terms of road accidents (I saw this documented once) and the financial cost of changing every Town Hall clock, Church tower clock etc etc. in the country. And most (all?) other countries do the same. Why? Please somebody tell me why, and I'll forever shut up on the subject.

Erm....

6 days later and no replies. Does this mean there really is no logical reason for the hour change, or does it simply mean nobody has read the question?

Maybe I really am the only one who thinks the whole thing is odd.

It's to increase daylight hours during summer which is why it's also known as daylight saving time.
Initially introduced as a productivity measure during wartime (WWI I think). There are some who advocate double british summer time (ie the same time as europe). This was actually done during WWII again as a productivity and efficiency thing.

But it doesn't actually increase daylight hours, it just moves them.

I've always thought it was a rather silly idea.

meaigs

People get up at the same time all the year round. In Ireland, this is about 7:30. Most people are out the door at 8 to be in work by 9. In late Spring, Summer and early Autumn, the sun rises earlier, so there are hours of brightness in the morning before anyone is awake to use them. By switching the clock, we pretend it is 8 am when it is really only 7 am, it's still bright when we go to work, but we have an extra hour of daylight in the evening. In winter, we go back to "winter time", because otherwise it would be dark in the morning when we go to work.

Daylight Saving Time is used in Europe as well as in the USA. It is not used in countries closer to the equator because the day does not change in length during the year to the same extent.

One winter in the late sixties, it was decided in the UK and Ireland to leave the clocks on Summer Time for the whole winter. School children were going to school in the dark and there were general fears for their safety, although I never saw any statistics about increased road accidents. All school children were issued with reflective armbands that year. In general the experiment was considered a failure. Now, most children seem to be driven to school, so the same principle might not apply.

26 clocks you say, is that true of all homes, let me check that, back in a mo......

WOAH!!! exactly 26 clocks, you a psychic or something? I really gotta go now, that was pretty freaky...., Hey I'll start a new conversation about psychics... *wanders round the room in a confused daze, falls over and lies there face down for a while.......*

The other option would be to have schools with different opening times for summer or winter. I think we should stay on GMT for more of the year, it seems silly to me that summer lasts for seven months according to the clocks!

OK, I take Gnomon's point about making better use of the sunlight. I still think this can only make a difference for about a month before the shortening (in Autumn) or lengthening (in Spring) of the days catches up anyway. So I still thinks it's silly. Sorry.

Regarding each home having 26 clocks, well I could be really smug and tell you I'm psychic, but in reality this was just a suitably high number picked entirely at random. Or so I thought, until I checked mine and it actually was 26! This figure includes watches and the time on the PC, video etc. It excludes the clock in my car - well that't not strictly in my home, is it?

Daylight Savings Time orginated in the US as a measure to help out rural farmers. It dates back to the revolutionary era. Rumor has it that it came from Ben Franklin... and that he suggested it as a joke. So you have to set your clocks back because someone took the old genius too literally.

Ah, now, I wondered how long it would be before somebody said the hour change was to help farmers. This has always been my mother's answer to the question. I cannot see how this helps them though. Surely farmers have to rise when the cows' body clocks tell them they need milking. If this was 6am on one day, and the clocks go back, the farmer just has to get up at 5am the next day to compensate. In fact I would have said that farmers are the one group of people that stand to really lose out. While they are tied to the rhythm of nature, the rest of the industrialised world has changed the time they do everything by an hour. This is all my opinion and I stand to be corrected of course

I think that was the point... it didn't really help anyone. That's why he only suggested it as a joke, but things got out of hand, as they tend to do.