Why do they call it daylight saving? I spend at least half an hour twice a year putting all the clocks back/forward.
And why do they advertise watches as being accurate to 1/1000th second? How can anybody set them that acurately? Even the ones that rely on satellite signals cannot possibly guarantee that accuracy given that the signal takes a finite time to reach the receiver?
Any horologists out there who could explain?
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Originally posted by SheffieldLive I dont know if the following is true or not:
Like the USA we also have different time zones, Scotland is always ahead of england and wales because it goes darker at least 30mins before us.
Is that true?
I'm sorry but that seems like the most stupid thing to say ever! Of course it gets dark at different times in different places!
In Scotland, nights are longer during the winter and days are longer during the summer. You have to remember that during the winter at the north pole it's dark 24 hours a day.
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Originally posted by max Why do they call it daylight saving? I spend at least half an hour twice a year putting all the clocks back/forward.
That's why you have to do it at 2:00 a.m. so as not to waste any daylight
Quote:
Originally posted by max And why do they advertise watches as being accurate to 1/1000th second? How can anybody set them that acurately?
Two reasons - depending on just what the 1/1000 second claim relates to:
1) They are talking about the possibility for a watch to gain or lose time. Mechanical clocks and watches in particular might only be accurate within a few seconds a day so after a few weeks they could drift off by a few minutes and need adjusting.
2) A digital watch will often include timing functions so you can use it as a stopwatch. Of course the human reaction time in pressing the stop/start button is far less accurate that 1/1000 second but for the purchaser there's the "mine's better than yours" factor to consider.
Apologies for giving a sensible (hopefully?) answer to what may be merely a whimsical query!
What annoys me is clocks that you can only adjust in one direction. My cooker has a 24 hour clock and to put it BACK an hour you actually need to put it FORWARD 23 hours by switching it to "fast" mode which is 60 times normal - so it takes 23 minutes - so of course I leave it to get on with it and remember to come back about 24 minutes later - so I have to leave it another 23 mins - by the time I've got it right its time to put the clocks forward again!
Originally posted by SheffieldLive
I dont know if the following is true or not:
Like the USA we also have different time zones, Scotland is always ahead of england and wales because it goes darker at least 30mins before us.
Is that true?
Sort of.
Quote:
Originally posted by Sidla
I'm sorry but that seems like the most stupid thing to say ever! Of course it gets dark at different times in different places!
In Scotland, nights are longer during the winter and days are longer during the summer. You have to remember that during the winter at the north pole it's dark 24 hours a day.
That is pretty much true wherever you live, although the differences in daylength across the year are less pronounced the closer to the equator you are.
In fact it could be said to be the very definition of Summer and Winter, so Australians end up celebrating Christmas more or less on their Summer Solstice.
I think what SheffieldLive means is the longitudinal differences in time.
These are most easily compared at the equinoxes, when the day length is, to all extents and purposes, the same worldwide - i.e the terminator is perpendicular to the equator.
Solar midday (when the sun is at its highest, directly overhead on the equator) does obviously occur at different times due to the earth's rotation, so East anglia is in a different time zone to Cornwall.
But the all time zone differences are banded together in bundles of 15 degrees of circumference, each band equalling one hour difference.
Before GMT and the time signal, you really would have to adjust your watch to local time when you travelled from Anglesey to Lindisfarne, because the clocks would be set from the sun and not the pips/dropping ball/whatever.
The fact that the sun would rise earlier and set later in, say Inverness, would be dependent on the latitude, but the actual time would be dependent on the longitude.
Quote:
Originally posted by Lewis Carroll
Which is better, a clock that is right only once a year, or a clock that is right twice every day? "The latter," you reply, "unquestionably." Very good, now attend.
Nah, Rephrase the question - "Which is better, a clock that goes and can give you some indication of the time, provided you take the trouble to set it right every few days, and a broken clock?"
"The former" you reply, "indubitably".
"Oh, ok then".
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Originally posted by caprice I'm not sure he's capable of doing that Purplepippa. He hasn't made you look stupid either, only himself. As ever.
Boohoo. Pippa said "dark early", which could quite easily be taken as being in the morning since this is *early*. I also said that I THOUGHT that this is what she meant, I never said it with 100% certaintity.
CRUCIFY me for one minor mistake (which could've been interpreted either way). I will remember this the next time you slip up.
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Why is it that almost every thread topic just ends up as an argument over who is right and who is wrong? The top posts in this section and the Sheffield Chat one all involve petty squabbling.
Originally posted by alchresearch Why is it that almost every thread topic just ends up as an argument over who is right and who is wrong? The top posts in this section and the Sheffield Chat one all involve petty squabbling.
Probably because the nights are drawing in and everyone is getting crotchety.
By Christmas we'll all be either:
a)brimming with the milk of human kindness
or
b)transformed into howling gorgons of pedantry and point scoring.
I will be trying for a) but no guarantees!
[edited for split infinitives )
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On the shortest day it gets light in the morning at around 8.20/30 even later if the weather is not good, so if we didn't put back the clocks that would become 9.30. Do you really want to got to work in the dark every morning for a few months?
And are the kids not already difficult enough to get up in the morning without it being dark, i know how hard i find it myself to get up.
You would still come home in the dark as it would still get dark before 5 instead of 4.
And it is only for a few months.
So yes i think we should still put the clocks back.
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Actually, I wrote this article for the Mirror and it appeared last month. Be careful, that's all I can say.
It's not worth taking any risks!
TIME CRIMINALS TO BE PENALISED, SHOCK!
The government has issued a stern warning to the British public: put your clocks forward before 2am on the 28th of March, and face the consequences.
“It is an offence and appropriate action will be taken against offenders,” Time Minister Gerald Smith told us last night.
British Summertime officially begins at 2am on Sunday the 28th of March – and not just when it’s convenient sometime during Saturday evening,” he said.
“It’s not as if it won’t last long. I mean, we’ve got it until October and people still want more,” the irate Minister ranted.
“People have got to stop being so greedy. It’s getting ridiculous and we have to stop it. And so members of the public who utilise British Summertime before it officially becomes available, will have the authorities to answer to.
“People have been known to steal more than EIGHT HOURS which is an awful lot of time. It’s nothing short of criminal. But be warned: the detector vans will be out in force from Saturday teatime, and offenders will be rounded up.”
Mr Smith is asking for restraint and is urging that people go to bed at their normal times on Saturday night, and then get up at 2am and put their clocks forward by one hour. “It’s the only fair way,” he said.
“ Then we can look forward to a good summer as it will be getting dark a lot lighter and earlier much later in the evenings.”
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This debate surfaces every year without fail and nothing ever changes, so why break a tradition? Its good to get lighter evenings and good to get an extra hour in bed when they change them again.
Originally posted by t020 Clocks are actually supposed to be put forward at 1am GMT to become 2am BST. The switch in October is back at 2am BST to 1am GMT.
Trust you to know what you're on about.
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Originally posted by Bookey Leave it as it is.
If it aint broke dont try to fix it...
You could argue that it wasn't broke when the they decided to introduce BST back in 1916. The actual reason for the introduction of BST was because of the Great War. The theory was that planes going out during the evening would save fuel that would have otherwise been needed to power the aircrafts lights.
It's quite interesting to learn that during the Second World War, Double British Summer Time was introduced, and during the summer the clocks were set 2 hours ahead of GMT, and changed back to GMT +1 during the winter.
I don't really know why we still need the seemingly obsolete switch now though. I think it would be better if we used either GMT or BST on a permanent basis.
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