So it looks like Indiana has finally decided to adopt Daylight Saving Time (DST) like most of the rest of the country, and hopefully reform its muddled mess of timezones at the same time. (Some counties in Indiana change their clocks in violation of state law). I’m sure Marty is pleased.
I think it is a little odd that the legislators that voted to go with the rest of the country are written about as genuine “heroes” in some newspapers. But I do think it’s good that Indiana is doing what everyone else is.
Now I hear talk of extending DST for a total of two more months. That is, more of the year will be spent on DST instead of Standard Time. That’s silly. Why don’t we all just move our schedules for everything one hour earlier and be done with the time changing, forever?
That would please my great-grandfather. He always kept at least one clock in his house on standard time, because “this is God’s time.” I haven’t ever quite figured out why Central Standard Time was the divinely favored time zone.
DST is entered on the last Sunday of March and exited on the last Sunday of October. This year, DST was entered on March 27 and will be exited on October 30. That makes DST last a total of 218 days, well over half of a year already. (This is the EU definition of DST, which apparently is essentially the same as in the USA.)
DST is already seven months!
In the US, it’s the first Sunday of April to the last Sunday of October. So, similar. And yes, I know it’s already longer than Standard Time. They’re wanting to make it even worse. Sigh.
Up until the mid-1800s, in the USA, each major town had its own time, which was solar time (when the sun reaches its highest point, it’s noon). This meant that neighboring cities would be a few minutes off from each other, which made it almost impossible to put together a train schedule.
So the railroads pushed Congress to fix it, and that’s how we ended up with four time zones. This scheme is no more “natural” than DST. So I hope your great-grandfather set his clock by a sundial.
I read somewhere that they still use solar time (rather than an integer number of hours different from UTC) in Saudi Arabia. I’m not sure about this though.