# Daylight Savings Time: a Solomon-like solution? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 13, 2013, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-a-solomon-like-solution/652782 "2013-03-13T02:43:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2013, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-a-solomon-like-solution/652782/21 "2013-03-14T13:27:47Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > But is that a problem in Florida? Remember, sunrise and sunset times vary less as you get toward the equator. Hawaii doesn’t have DST. But some places much nearer the equator do. Lots of places in Brazil, for instance, according to [this list](http://www.timeanddate.com/time/dst/2012.html). ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2013, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-a-solomon-like-solution/652782/22 "2013-03-14T13:33:42Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > But is that a problem in Florida? Remember, sunrise and sunset times vary less as you get toward the equator. Hawaii doesn’t have DST. Florida has its own Fark category; them pulling this stunt would not surprise me. However, contrary to the suggestion by the OP, this does not mean that anywhere else should have to adopt the idea. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2013, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-a-solomon-like-solution/652782/23 "2013-03-14T16:20:09Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > But is that a problem in Florida? Remember, sunrise and sunset times vary less as you get toward the equator. Hawaii doesn’t have DST. That’s the thing. I could understand if Alaska wanted to keep switching to DSL and back, but for most places in the US it really isn’t worth the trouble that comes from having to reset your circadian rhythms twice a year. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2013, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-a-solomon-like-solution/652782/24 "2013-03-14T16:44:48Z")
I have no problem with the proposed solution. Or just moving clocks 30 minutes once and never again. But I think I’m going to start adjusting my opposition to DST. Instead of just calling it stupid, I’m going to start saying it doesn’t go far enough. One measly hour difference? Pshaw! We ought to move the clocks by one hour in February, one hour in May, and then move one hour back in September, and another hour in October. Then maybe another hour again in December. Because in the winter, I want the sun to come up at 4am, and in the summer, I want the sun to be up until midnight. But I also want things graduated so that my system isn’t shocked by one big two hour time change. ---
**Author:** ![jacobsta811](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jacobsta811/32/2893_2.png) [@jacobsta811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacobsta811)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2013, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-a-solomon-like-solution/652782/25 "2013-03-14T23:59:48Z")
Screwing with the clocks provides valuable debugging against programs by idiot programmers. These issues would otherwise only crop up during leap seconds or if you changed your time zone. More seriously, if you didn’t screw with the clocks and did “permanent” DST, you’d end up back in the same situation in a decade or two. Businesses don’t like to change their posted hours twice a year, and people would bitch and moan about the “poor children going to school in the dark” and we’d just end up with businesses, schools, etc piecemeal switching their opening time an hour later permanently. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2013, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-a-solomon-like-solution/652782/26 "2013-03-15T00:08:17Z")
DST rocks, and this just proves that Florida is full of nuts and losers. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2013, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-a-solomon-like-solution/652782/27 "2013-03-16T20:07:19Z")
Personally, what I’d like to see would be a continually-adjusting system, where sunrise was always at exactly 6:00 AM. That’s impractical now, of course, but we’re quickly approaching the point where every clock will have a processor in it and be attached to a GPS or other way of determining location, at which point there would be no real obstacle. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2013, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-a-solomon-like-solution/652782/28 "2013-03-16T20:36:37Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Personally, what I’d like to see would be a continually-adjusting system, where sunrise was always at exactly 6:00 AM. That’s impractical now, of course, but we’re quickly approaching the point where every clock will have a processor in it and be attached to a GPS or other way of determining location, at which point there would be no real obstacle. Dude..you’re **Chronos**. Can’t you just…make it happen?. ---
**Author:** ![Tamex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Tamex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamex)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-a-solomon-like-solution/652782/29 "2013-03-18T05:22:55Z")
My father told me stories about when the US already tried this, during the oil crisis in 1973. In his opinion, it was a disaster. As people mentioned above, in northern states, the sun rises pretty late in the winter time already, and DST just makes it worse. It was dangerous for kids who had to wait for buses or walk to school in the dark (of course, fewer kids walk to school these days, and high schools around here start at 7:30 am so there are already kids walking to school in the dark, so perhaps it’s a moot point now.) For people who worked outdoors, like my father, a bricklayer, it was ridiculous. You can’t do your job if you can’t see, so they ended up shifting their work schedules forward in the winter so that they would have enough sunlight to work. (So much for “DST saves energy!”) It would only work because fewer people walk to school/work and more people work indoors than 40 years ago, and is that really a situation that we want to reward? ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-a-solomon-like-solution/652782/30 "2013-03-18T05:58:00Z")
Leave the clocks the same all year and adjust the opening hours and your daily schedule. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-a-solomon-like-solution/652782.md?page=1)