MrBig
Diamond Member
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Why is daylight saving needed by anyone in the first instance?
Surely if business owners and their employees wish to take advantage of extra sunlight at the end of day they can elect to start earlier.
The time is an indicator of number of degrees longitude a place is from Greenwich. If I’m in Perth and the sun is directly overhead I know that the sun will be roughly directly over London 8 hours later. Most workers in construction arrange to be on site at dawn all year round - dawn is not dictated by what is showing on a watch. These facts do not change with daylight savings so why have the clock dials display an alternate reality of time?
Differences Perth v Sydney (I’ve used Sydney in this instance as its latitude is similar to Perth).
As an example, many European locations adopt a ‘siesta’ period for the warmer hours of the day. This allows people to relax and re-energise so that they may take advantage of the cooler evening hours where you find people eating and drinking and socialising until all hours of the night.
Restaurants in Perth find that during daylight savings they have the same number of patrons, stretched out over an extra hour, then people are off home to prepare for their hectic lifestyle revolving around work – leaving the restaurant owners’ a one hour increase in running cost.
Technological advancement in communications has made clock watching a thing of the past for private and business sectors; remember, with daylight saving, children will be finishing their school day at the height of UV radiation.
Surely if business owners and their employees wish to take advantage of extra sunlight at the end of day they can elect to start earlier.
The time is an indicator of number of degrees longitude a place is from Greenwich. If I’m in Perth and the sun is directly overhead I know that the sun will be roughly directly over London 8 hours later. Most workers in construction arrange to be on site at dawn all year round - dawn is not dictated by what is showing on a watch. These facts do not change with daylight savings so why have the clock dials display an alternate reality of time?
Differences Perth v Sydney (I’ve used Sydney in this instance as its latitude is similar to Perth).
- Perth is at roughly 116 degrees longitude and therefore approximate 4 degrees WEST of the time line. Sydney is roughly 151 degrees longitude and therefore approximately 1 degree EAST of the time line. That’s a 5 degree difference which is equivalent to 20 minutes. Therefore, just on that basis, Perth has the equivalent of 20 minutes of “daylight saving” all year round.
- Perth’s sunset is over the ocean, Sydney’s is behind mountains. I haven’t done the maths to tell me how many degrees of arc those mountains represent but I’m sure that they’ll affect the sunset by roughly 5 minutes now taking Perth to 25 minutes of extra sunlight at the end of the day – all year round.
- Sunrise in Perth is also 20 minutes later in Perth than in Sydney which means that late during the daylight savings period many of Perth’s office workers are already leaving for work in darkness.
- Perth is at roughly 116 degrees longitude and therefore approximate 4 degrees WEST of the time line. Melbourne is roughly 145 degrees longitude and therefore approximately 5 degree WEST of the time line. That’s a 1 degree difference which is equivalent to 4 minutes. Therefore, on that basis, Melbourne has the equivalent of 24 minutes of “daylight saving” all year round.
- Melbourne’s latitude is almost 6 degrees further south than Perth’s resulting in a much longer twilight period and generally cooler conditions.
- I’ve spoken to a number of Melbournians that don’t like daylight saving.
As an example, many European locations adopt a ‘siesta’ period for the warmer hours of the day. This allows people to relax and re-energise so that they may take advantage of the cooler evening hours where you find people eating and drinking and socialising until all hours of the night.
Restaurants in Perth find that during daylight savings they have the same number of patrons, stretched out over an extra hour, then people are off home to prepare for their hectic lifestyle revolving around work – leaving the restaurant owners’ a one hour increase in running cost.
Technological advancement in communications has made clock watching a thing of the past for private and business sectors; remember, with daylight saving, children will be finishing their school day at the height of UV radiation.
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