I do not think it a bad idea, to get hit upside the head, perhaps, say,
twice a year, with the notion that was lives on a planet, not a treadmill.
It is at least an opportunity to occasionally discuss astronomy twice a
year with those who might otherwise remain aloof. The days get longer,
the ecliptic appears to move. We should notice.
Carl
On 3/17/13 9:19 PM, Arlo Barnes wrote:
Steve, thank you for linking the WikiMedia Commons SVG, I like vector
graphics, particularly ones that are also infographics.
However, it does not display what is really going on with DST.
Although everybody has stories about how it came about and was
implemented and why (for factories, for gas lamps, whatever) including
the urban legend that Ben Franklin invented it, the general goal
behind all of those specific purposes is to align more closely the
clock day with the light day. For example, a clock says 0600; how
light is it outside? Is it dawn? Earlier? Later? Well, that changes
throughout the year because the Earth is tilted. It would not if the
Earth was vertical (to clarify, if it's pole of rotation was parallel
to the pole of orbit) and a year was exactly 365 days, and each day
were exactly 24 hours, and if [a more minor factor] there were no
precession, and so on). So what DST is really doing is shifting the
time scale 'down' relative to the light scale (in the WM diagram [or
perhaps *dia*gram]) to more closely 'fit' that sunset/sunrise curve.
Now, yes, we might be able to simply ignore that curve, pick a place
for the time day to start and stick with it; after all, electric
lights are ubiquitous and few of our jobs actually depend on being up
at the same time as the sun (perhaps farmers still, but there are
fewer and fewer of them).
But I am saying I think it is possible and doable to have a system
that follows the variance in the amount of daylight versus dark
throughout the year, if we as a society think it is valuable to go
that route. After all, before the invention of more and more
specialised calendar systems that is what people would have considered
a day: from sunrise to sunset and the following dark period, no matter
what time of year.
-Arlo James Barnes
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
