any one know why we do this?

Look it up.

So kids can stay out in the street late playing cricket?

That why I always thought it happened.

Its because our congressmen think they can add another hour of daylight.

In September 1999, the West Bank was on Daylight Saving Time while Israel had just switched back to standard time. West Bank terrorists prepared time bombs and smuggled them to their Israeli counterparts, who misunderstood the time on the bombs. As the bombs were being planted, they exploded--one hour too early--killing three terrorists

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That was my favorite bit about DST, from THIS site.

It seems Ben Franklin first thought of it, to more closely match the daylight with the time people were most active. It was introduced in the early 20th century in England, but not always honored. Then, during WW1, it was more widely adopted and followed to conserve energy.

DST makes sense in the north. Here in Florida, it is somewhat tragic. It extends the oppressive heat long into the evenings in the summer, while having the sun set at 5 or 6 in the winter, when temps and conditions are PERFECT. There's not much sadder than looking out the window at 79 degrees and sun, knowing it will be dark before your commute gets you home.

My solution(s): get a job that lets you out at 3 p.m., and, of course, commute by bike!

Reduction of energy costs... and to pi$$ off cyclists.

+ 1

I miss DST.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time

No it doesn't.

So your kids don't have to walk/wait for a bus in the dark on their way to school.

That would make sense if winter were the altered time, but it is summer when we alter the time from the original.

Don't do this kid's homework for him!! He should be perfectly capable of researching it himself.

Here's a place to start ...

https://www.google.com.au/

And if you can't find answers there, check your local library.

While I somewhat agree, then whats the use of having message boards to ask questions on??? Nearly everyone by now should know about wikipedia, google, etc, but sometimes it can be more interesting to hear what other ppl have to say about it.

I haven't actually researched it, but I seem to remember that while it was initially conjured up for energy savings or some such, the biggest supporters of modern-day DST usage are country clubs. (More evening daylight = more time to play golf = more greens fees.)

I have no idea if this is true, but it makes sense.

Because I LIKE IT. End of discussion.

I wish the powers that be would just leave the damn time alone.I don't care if they want the sun to come up at midnight and go down at noon,just pick a fricking time and leave it alone.

After reading the company line from wiki,does anyone really know why we do it? I've yet to hear a GOOD reason for it in 52 years.

Easy. Cut off a piece of string and tie it on the other end. Now, you've got a longer piece of string, right?

^^^WTF? Is that a serious article or some letter a nut job sent in? "warming effect an extra hour of day light would have on our climate"........am I reading that right? Did that person actually say that theres an extra hour of daylight? w.o.w.

I can't believe how many bad answers there are here.

Daylight savings time was created to do just what the name implies -- save up daylight during the winter hours when people aren't outside as much, so that there is more daylight to use in the summertime when kids are out of school and everyone is outside doing things.

If there were no daylight savings time, the daylight/night time hours would be the same all year, except on leap years. By storing daylight during the winter, it allows us to have more daylight hours during the summer, when the stored daylight is released.

There are a few other benefits to DST. 1 - the longer nights provide better snowmaking conditions, so that areas that wouldn't normally be able to have skiing can. North Carolina for example. Without DST, there would be no skiing in NC. 2 - winter passes more quickly since there are more night time hours when people are sleepoing. 3 - farmers do not have to use as much energy to keep their milk cold, because the cows are not absorbing as much sunlight during the day so their internal temperature is lower. During winter, the milk comes out of the udders closer to proper storage/drinking temperature.

I hope this has helped clear up some misconceptions.

Billyymc is my new hero.

Hey billy, we'd get the same amount of daylight and darkness no matter if we use daylight savings or not. The timekeeping system we use would have to be adjusted. You don't gain any extra daylight, the hour the sun sets is later, but sun rise is later as well.

Dan - this is a common and widely held misperception. Because we are saving daylight in the winter, we have more of it to distribute during summer -- well, actually the distribution begins in the spring (when we go on standard time) and goes through fall (when we go back to saving daylight).

The other factor, which doesn't have as great an impact as daylight savings, is that in the summer the sun moves closer to the Earth. Because of this the light from the sun reaches us more quickly -- i.e. - earlier -- thereby making the days longer in the summer.

One other thing to point out is that at extreme latitudes the effect of daylight savings is compounded because the curvature of the earth diminishes near the poles. The DST affect is raised by the latitude exponent. So near the arctic circle, there is almost constant night in the winter, and the opposite in the summer.

to use less whale blubber/oil