OF DAYLIGHT-SAVINGS TIME and TIME ZONES

Vahe H. Apelian

Today, November 6, 2022, the Daylight Savings Time ended. It had begun on Sunday March 13. Therefore, we got to sleep an hour longer. 

But the sun does not work that way. It did not rise an hour later than the previous day. The sun rises when the sun rises, no matter how we clock its rise. Today, the sun rose at 6:25 am in Boston, one of the easternmost cities on the east coast of the 48 contiguous states. In fact, Eastport, ME is considered the easternmost city in the continental US and is often reported as the first to see the sunrise. The sun rose there at 6.23 am, there. We know that the sun rises in the East or should I say that when the earthlings see the sun rise first, they call that a way,  east.

The sun is the life giver on this earth. It reigns supreme and remains seated on its throne and like any majesty it stays put as other parts of the world parade in front of it to get its blessings for without its generosity there cannot be life.

The earth rotates on its axis eastward. So as the earth rotates on eastward axis, the other cities and states of the continental U.S. start showing themselves to its majesty to get its blessed rays. It takes around 3 hours until the continental U.S. is rotated to have its western most coast face the sun. The city of Los Angeles is one its westernmost cities. It also craves for its share of the sunrays or sunlight and celebrates the hour and the minute it encounters the sun’s blessed rays and also calls it, sunrise. Today, the sun rose in Los Angeles was 6.18 am. That is to say, the sunrise in Los Angeles was 6:18 am. Which is very similar to the sunrise time in Boston, 6.25 AM.

But how come? The people in Boston have been on the move for some three hours when Los Angeles welcomed the sun rays. Should not their sunrise  be clocked at around 9:18 am. But no, sunrise and sunset times do not change with Daylight Savings Time. I do not know how time clocking was set and how did we come with the notion that 24 hours make a day or the time span from sunrise to the next,  and that there are time zones, of which we have six, four of which in across the contiguous 48 states. The Russians beat us there. There are 11 time zones in Russia. That can be understandable as Russia is 1.8 times larger than the U.S. France, which is 18 times smaller in size than the U.S., is said to have the most times zones, 12. How come?  But when it came to the British Empire, the sun never set on the empire. 

Coming to the Daylight Savings Time, does it really save whatever it is supposed to save and hence conserve? I do not know. But hey, as the winter starts setting in, we get to sleep an hour longer when the Daylight Savings Time ended today but we will grudgingly wake up an hour early when the Daylight Savings Time kicks in. Clocking our time is subjective. But our workday is a firm 8 hours. We may wake up with a more sun light, but we will return from work when there will be even lesser sunlight compared to the day before. Come to think of it. We no longer work in open fields. Most of us work indoors. Why this hassle?

Is Daylight Savings Time a perception or the end result of a conclusive study ascertaining its benefits, whatever these benefits are and however they are measure?  I do not know but somehow I am reminded of the following anecdote  I had heard in Lebanon at a time when one could hop into a circulating taxi cab for 25 piasters and the tramways cost 5 piasters. Someone tells a friend that he has 5 piasters in his pocket because he saved the 5 piasters that day by running after the tramway instead of taking the tramway to his destination. His friend replies and tells him  he would have  25 piasters in his pocket, instead of 5 piasters, because he would have saved 25 piasters by running the same distance but after  a taxicab and not a tramway.