Clock change

[TigerTedd]

On 29/10/2016 at 23:37, mozza said:

I'm sure some clever bod could work out the exact hours,minutes,seconds in a year and divide them up more accurately so as there would be no need to alter the clocks twice a year, summat like 23 hours , 59 minutes 37 seconds per day as an example..

That's leap year your thinking of. And a day is a day because that's how long it takes the earth to revolve on its own axis, a year is a year because that's how long it takes the earth to revolve around the sun. But unfortunately one doesn't exactly divide into the other. Blame god for his lack of cosmic neatness. So if there wasn't a leap year, over the course of a couple of centuries, we'd be having summer in winter and winter in summer. 

I wonder how long it took prehistoric man to work that out?

[TigerTedd]

On 30/10/2016 at 09:01, Paul71 said:

Thats what i was always told...yet it would seem its not really the case, modern farming methods dont rely on the daylight like they used to it seems.

Some clever bugger invented an electric lightbulb. 

[froggg]

On 29/10/2016 at 12:13, Bridgford Ram said:

I started thinking - far to much - about how the clock change actually works.  I must have been through 80 of these and never really thought about it, especially now when most of the clocks in the house change themselves.

I have always sort of known that the clock change happens at 2pm, but what is it happens?  More and more business is international and 24:7 meaning that a time in the UK that was previously a time everyone was in bed is now probably important for lots of reasons.

Looking at Sky+ it seems the time gets to 2pm and then goes back to 1pm and does that hour again.

If you are working the night do you have to work an hour extra in October but an hour less in March?

Do people on medicines just include the extra hour and adjust their times the next day?

How do countries that don't have a concept of daylight saving cope with the fact we will have two 1.30ams tomorrow?

Or am I just thinking about it too much?

I know the hour extra I worked on Saturday night  I'll never get back ?

[froggg]

8 hours ago, TigerTedd said:

That's leap year your thinking of. And a day is a day because that's how long it takes the earth to revolve on its own axis, a year is a year because that's how long it takes the earth to revolve around the sun. But unfortunately one doesn't exactly divide into the other. Blame god for his lack of cosmic neatness. So if there wasn't a leap year, over the course of a couple of centuries, we'd be having summer in winter and winter in summer. 

I wonder how long it took prehistoric man to work that out?

god, who?

[TigerTedd]

1 hour ago, froggg said:

god, who?

God Smith

[Highgate]

12 hours ago, TigerTedd said:

That's leap year your thinking of. And a day is a day because that's how long it takes the earth to revolve on its own axis, a year is a year because that's how long it takes the earth to revolve around the sun. But unfortunately one doesn't exactly divide into the other. Blame god for his lack of cosmic neatness. So if there wasn't a leap year, over the course of a couple of centuries, we'd be having summer in winter and winter in summer. 

I wonder how long it took prehistoric man to work that out?

Not quite true, a day is 24 hours long because that's how long it takes for the sun to return to the same meridian in the sky averaged out over a year.  The earth rotates on it's axis a few minutes more quickly than that....equal to the sidereal year (the time it takes for distant stars to return to the same meridian).  Apologies for the needless pedantry. 

Never understood the reason for the clock change....nobody seems to know why it started, and if people really want brighter mornings in the winter, or longer evenings in the summer, then just get up an hour later or earlier in the morning (which is what we do anyway) and leave the clocks alone. 

[TigerTedd]

8 hours ago, Highgate said:

Not quite true, a day is 24 hours long because that's how long it takes for the sun to return to the same meridian in the sky averaged out over a year.  The earth rotates on it's axis a few minutes more quickly than that....equal to the sidereal year (the time it takes for distant stars to return to the same meridian).  Apologies for the needless pedantry. 

Never understood the reason for the clock change....nobody seems to know why it started, and if people really want brighter mornings in the winter, or longer evenings in the summer, then just get up an hour later or earlier in the morning (which is what we do anyway) and leave the clocks alone. 

That's a good point. Just change the working day, rather than the entire clock. Ie school goes from 10 til 4. Work goes from 10 til 6, etc. That would still effect a lot of people, but not as many people, because it's optional, at the end of the day. I think you might be onto something. 

[Stive Pesley]

14 hours ago, Highgate said:

Never understood the reason for the clock change....nobody seems to know why it started,

I was always told at school it was something to do with farmers needing to have some daylight when they get up early to toss off their cows

[Wolfie]

50 minutes ago, StivePesley said:

I was always told at school it was something to do with farmers needing to have some daylight when they get up early to toss off their cows

We're in GMT (proper time) now, though, so the hour change is for BST, which makes the mornings darker.

I'm sure I was told it was a farmer thing but think it was the opposite - to make it lighter in the evenings, for harvest etc.

[AndyinLiverpool]

Just now, Wolfie said:

We're in GMT (proper time) now, though, so the hour change is for BST, which makes the mornings darker.

I'm sure I was told it was a farmer thing but think it was the opposite - to make it lighter in the evenings, for harvest etc.

It's all a bit silly, though isn't it? It doesn't create any more daylight. The only way to do that is to move the farm further south.

Wouldn't a farmer simply be able to adjust to the prevailing light conditions, e.g. start harvesting a bit earlier in the day, get up at a different time? His cows don't know the clocks have changed.

[Wolfie]

12 minutes ago, AndyinLiverpool said:

It's all a bit silly, though isn't it? It doesn't create any more daylight. The only way to do that is to move the farm further south.

Wouldn't a farmer simply be able to adjust to the prevailing light conditions, e.g. start harvesting a bit earlier in the day, get up at a different time? His cows don't know the clocks have changed.

But that would get in the way of threatening trespassers with shotguns and driving tractors on the roads during evening rush hour for no particular reason.

[ramit]

We don't bother with it here, being so far up north it doesn't make sense, we would have to change the clock monthly.  Daylight is what is important, not the clock.  During summer we are more active and sleep less, in winter we read and hibernate.  Works for us.