DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME

Subject : Science & tech

Context : Clocks in the US will “fall back” an hour on Sunday, signalling the end of Daylight Saving Time (DST) this year. In Europe, the same happened on October 25.

Concept :

Daylight Saving Time (DST)

• DST is the practice of setting the clocks forward one hour from standard time during the summer months, and back again in the fall, in order to make better use of natural daylight.
• It is in use during the period from spring to autumn (or fall), when Europe and the United States get an extra hour of daylight in the evening.

Why use DST?

• No daylight is of course, actually ‘saved’ — rather, the idea is to make better use of daylight.
• So when it is autumn (or fall) in the Northern Hemisphere, and days are typically beginning to become shorter and nights longer, clocks are moved back an hour.
• The rationale behind setting clocks ahead of standard time during springtime was to ensure that clocks showed a later sunrise and a later sunset — in effect, a longer evening daytime.
• Individuals were expected to wake up an hour earlier than usual, and complete their daily work routines an hour earlier.
• The governments decide to in effect transfer an hour of daylight from evening to morning, when it is assumed to be of greater use to most people.

Who uses DST?

• Countries around the equator (in Africa, South America, and southeast Asia) do not usually follow DST; there isn’t much variation in the daylight they receive round the year in any case.
• India does not have a DST, even though there are large parts of the country where winter days are shorter.
• Most Gulf countries do not use DST — during the holy month of Ramzan, this could mean delaying the breaking of the fast for longer.
• Morocco has DST, but suspends it during Ramzan. However, Iran has DST, and stays with it even during Ramzan.
• Countries in East Asia and Africa mostly do not have a system of DST.