Clock Alteration - End of Summertime

[PLD]

[Rant Mode]
I am the only one fed up of 'experts' in the media stating that changing the clock (or not) gives us "an extra hour of daylight" IT DOESN'T - it moves an hour from one end of the day to the other... 

The only way you can BOTH be right is if we move the clocks Back in the morning and Forward in the afternoon every day!!!   
Hang on... if that makes the 9-5 working day only 7 hours... 
[/Rant Mode]

[chrism]

Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so 

[Newportnobby]

Quote from a doctor on the new BBC Morning Programme today.............
When the clocks go back, the next day there is a reduction in heart attacks of 21% and when the clocks go forward the next day's heart attacks rise by 24%.
The percentages of road traffic accidents also follows this trend.
It follows messing about with the clocks messes up our bodies/minds

[Steven B]

Why don't the clocks change a (roughly) equal number of days either side of the winter solstice?

It's currently 56 days until the shortest day, yet the clocks go forward again 97 days after the shortest day - nearly 6 weeks later.

Steven B.

[chrism]

Why don't the clocks change a (roughly) equal number of days either side of the winter solstice?
It's currently 56 days until the shortest day, yet the clocks go forward again 97 days after the shortest day - nearly 6 weeks later.

It could be to try and achieve some form of standardisation at some point in the day - after the recent change, sunrise (in London) was 06:42, after the change in March sunrise will be 06:44, although the day will be about 2½ hours longer in March.

That is because the change of sunrise/set times and day length are not uniform throughout the year due to the combination of the earth's axis being tilted and the orbit around the sun being slightly eccentric.

There was a great photo in one of the newspapers some years ago where someone had photographed a scene with the sun in it at precisely the same time each day (when the sun was visible) from a fixed camera, then overlaid all the photos to show the track of the sun - far from being a straight line, it describes a flattened figure 8 over the whole year.

[Jim Easterbrook]

There was a great photo in one of the newspapers some years ago where someone had photographed a scene with the sun in it at precisely the same time each day (when the sun was visible) from a fixed camera, then overlaid all the photos to show the track of the sun - far from being a straight line, it describes a flattened figure 8 over the whole year.

The figure 8 is called an analemma. Some years ago I spotted a sundial with one on.

Colmar, France. by Jim Easterbrook, on Flickr

I think it shows the deviation between mean solar time and actual solar time, which varies by up to 15 minutes during the year. I'm not sure it's why the clocks don't change on the "right" date though - I think that's more to do with doing it at the start of schools' half term holidays.

PS Here's a sundial I saw more recently with several analemmas.

Marienplatz, München, Germany by Jim Easterbrook, on Flickr

[chrism]

show the track of the sun - far from being a straight line, it describes a flattened figure 8 over the whole year.

The figure 8 is called an analemma. Some years ago I spotted a sundial with one on.

Colmar, France. by Jim Easterbrook, on Flickr

Thanks, I'd never heard the name before, let alone seen it on a sundial.

I'm not sure it's why the clocks don't change on the "right" date though - I think that's more to do with doing it at the start of schools' half term holidays.

I very much doubt that - the Spring half term next year is a full month before the clocks go forward.

The spring half term will always be related to when Easter falls, which can sometimes be close to or even  earlier than when the clocks change, e.g. in 2008 Easter was the week before the clocks changed and in 2005 & 2016 Easter Sunday was the day the clocks changed.

[Jim Easterbrook]

I'm not sure it's why the clocks don't change on the "right" date though - I think that's more to do with doing it at the start of schools' half term holidays.

I very much doubt that - the Spring half term next year is a full month before the clocks go forward.

The spring half term will always be related to when Easter falls, which can sometimes be close to or even  earlier than when the clocks change, e.g. in 2008 Easter was the week before the clocks changed and in 2005 & 2016 Easter Sunday was the day the clocks changed.

Of course. Now we just need to persuade the churches to stop moving Easter around.

[chrism]

I'm not sure it's why the clocks don't change on the "right" date though - I think that's more to do with doing it at the start of schools' half term holidays.

I very much doubt that - the Spring half term next year is a full month before the clocks go forward.

The spring half term will always be related to when Easter falls, which can sometimes be close to or even  earlier than when the clocks change, e.g. in 2008 Easter was the week before the clocks changed and in 2005 & 2016 Easter Sunday was the day the clocks changed.

Of course. Now we just need to persuade the churches to stop moving Easter around.

It might be easier to ask someone like Elon Musk to fly a couple of strong cables up so as to tether the moon in place and stop it shifting around   

[Bealman]

We babysit our 15 month granddaughter every Wednesday, and I did notice on the Wednesday after we put the clocks forward, her sleep periods were stuffed up. 

[gavin_t]

Quote from a doctor on the new BBC Morning Programme today.............
When the clocks go back, the next day there is a reduction in heart attacks of 21% and when the clocks go forward the next day's heart attacks rise by 24%.
The percentages of road traffic accidents also follows this trend.
It follows messing about with the clocks messes up our bodies/minds

Certainly messes with the traffic. We always joke at work that the Monday after the clocks change there will be traffic chaos for the evening rush. Sure enough it was there again this week. 

[stevewalker]

Of course. Now we just need to persuade the churches to stop moving Easter around.

The various churches have been discussing it for some time. However, there's no rush and they'll probably be talking about it for centuries.