I have forgotten now exactly what causes this, but I did learn it at some point and realize it happens. I did take classes, like Meteorology and Astronomy, that many probably don't.

Yeah, it's definitely an extra bit of knowledge that requires some extra
level of interest in the topic, just because it's about something that most people are not noticing.

Anyway, I _did_ find the explainer I did in early December, last year. Which I'll type here, as my copying-and-pasting seems to be failing:

As an annual announcement:

The sunset time, assuming Northern Hemisphere, is no longer getting earlier.

People who actually want to be awake in the morning will be getting less daylight for a while, though.

And then that brings up the interesting question of, "wait, why? The shortest day isn't for another week.", to which the answer is, "because days are longer than 24 hours, currently".

Which then brings up the interesting question of, "But aren't days 24 hours long?", which is true 4 days out of the year (well, ignoring sidereal days, where it takes 23 hours 56 minutes (ish) for the Earth to rotate, but it takes 4 additional minutes to get the sun to roughly the same spot as the previous day).

But not true the rest of the year.

And then as to why, it's two things: the Earth's orbit is slightly elliptical, and it goes through the orbit faster when it's closer to the sun.

And the second thing is a bit harder to explain. But it's because of the Earth's tilt. You probably already know how the tilt changes the length of day, as each hemisphere is tilted away during the winter, but tilted toward in the summer. And that the further north you go, the more pronounced the effect.

But longitude also matters, because the sun is moving in the sky for a given point in the day, not just up and down, but also to the side, and that change winds up affecting day length.

But these are pretty small effects, that really only become obvious when dawn/dusk times aren't changing much, as seen at the solstices.

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* Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)

Re: Re: DST in BC
By: Adept to The Wanderer on Tue Mar 31 2026 09:10 am

Honestly, having learned that the natural human circadian rhythm is 24 hours 16 minutes (I'm assuming with a decent amount of variance), I do wonder what would happen if we made the "day" 24 hours and 15 minutes long, "falling back" 15 minutes a day.

It's a pretty weird situation to think we're apparently aligned to this time frame that doesn't quite match the rest of the natural environment. I suspect if we had a 24.25 hour day, it would likely wind up working as poorly as doing a DST switch nearly every day, mostly because of the constant adjustment against the sunlight.

But that's just a guess... just seems like we'd be pretty out of whack with things. Who knows.

various people would suffer under any option. And there's still plenty of

Sure, I think the point is what's supposed to be the best overall, not "What's perfect for every single person".
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The Wanderer wrote to Adept <=-

various people would suffer under any option. And there's still plenty of

Sure, I think the point is what's supposed to be the best overall, not "What's perfect for every single person".

I still suspect that, if put up for a vote, we will get what isn't best
overall but will get whatever whoever spends the most money wants. :(

I would strongly suspect that'd be DST.

... Does anybody here remember Vera Lynn?
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Sunlight in the morning is better for overall mental health.
The Sun staying out later has no such affect.

Here is a good video from a sleep researcher who has, in
past, also been featured on PBS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t017DRROWTQ

I don't know about BC but the golf industry has been one
of the main pushers for year-long DST in the US.

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Mike, I wonder ifthe same argument/reason for permanent DST is the same ones used inthe 1950's to change the Central Standard Time section of Kentucky into the Eastern Standard Time zone for those who fly from KY to the Northeast daily.
I remembers the Drive-in Movie places was against doing that as it would delay their start up time one hout later.
Ed
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Ogg wrote to Ed Vance <=-

Hello Ed Vance!

** On Thursday 30.04.26 - 14:12, Ed Vance wrote to Dumas Walker:

Mike, Jean Parrot wrote in a Windows echo about trying out Ubuntu (which he abbreviated as U'U).

Awww.. that brings back memories. Jean was a fine fellow.

Has he passed? ;(


... Does anybody here remember Vera Lynn?
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