READING 1 SPRING FORWARD FALL BACK

One morning every spring, people all over Europe, North America, and

other parts of the world stagger out of bed and drag themselves to work or

school. Some arrive late; others arrive sleepy. Then, one morning the next fall,

they wake up, look gratefully at their clocks, and go back to sleep for another

hour.

The reason? Every spring, these people move their clocks forward one

hour when daylight saving time (DST) begins. They move them back one hour

in the fall when it ends. It seems like a lot of trouble. Why do we do have DST

in the first place? For answers, we have to go back several hundred years

How Did It All Start?

One summer morning in Paris in 1784, the American inventor and

diplomat Benjamin Franklin woke up at six in the morning. Usually, he stayed

out very late and so, on most days, he slept until about noon. Like many people

then and now, his activities were controlled by the clock, not the light of the sun.
That day, however, he had forgotten to close the curtains so his room became

very bright early in the morning.

He was delighted that he had six extra hours of daylight that day, which would

cost him nothing. In contrast, his evening activities required expensive, smoky

candles. When he realized this, he calculated how much the people of Paris

could save on candles if they all got out of bed at sunrise during the summer. He

came up with a figure that is equivalent to $200 million today. These

calculations led him to make a proposal to use daylight more efficiently by

changing the clocks twice a year.

For a long time, however, DST remained only a proposal. The first

country to adopt it on a national scale was Germany in 1916 during World War

I. By then, coal was used to generate electricity, and the German government

wanted to save the coal for the military. Other countries on both sides of the war

quickly followed suit. During World War II, DST became mandatory all year

round in Britain and the United States. (See Figure 1 on page 30 for other

countries that have adopted DST.) As in World War 1, governments wanted to

extended DST throughout the year during the 1973-74 oil crisis.

Why Do We Do It Today?

Since DST was first proposed, the major justification for DST has been

energy conservation. But does setting our clocks forward an hour in the spring

really still save energy? Maybe. A 2008 U.S. government study showed that

DST reduced the country’s energy consumption by 0.02 percent. Although the

percentage seems small, the savings can add up because the United States

consumes so much energy.

However, several other studies contradict these findings. A team of

environmental economists found that in Australia, DST reduced energy

consumption in the evening because sunset was later. But with sunrise also

coming later, DST resulted in higher electricity use during the dark mornings. A

study in the United States found that although use of lights decreased as a result

of DST, the use of air-conditioning rose because the extra hour in the summer

evening is hotter.
So, Why Do We Still Do It?

If the impact on energy conservation is uncertain, why do so many

countries continue to observe DST? Supporters of DST offer three additional

arguments: The extra hour of light in the evening can boost business. People

continue to shop and engage in outdoor activities until later in the evening,

which is beneficial for the economy. Second, supporters claim that the time

change can promote safety by reducing both crime and traffic accidents. People

are more likely to commit crimes and drive in the evening than the early

morning. However, the strongest claim for the benefits of DST is that it can

promote a healthier lifestyle by encouraging people to be more active in the

evening.

But are these claims valid? Although the evidence does point to a

beneficial increase in evening physical activity, several studies also reveal

negative health effects. They suggest that it can take weeks for our bodies to

adjust to the time change. During this period of adjustment, we get tired and are

more likely to get sick. We are also less productive. For some people, the time
change may represent a more serious health risk. A 2008 Swedish study found

people are at a higher risk of heart attack just after the springtime change, when

they lose an hour of sleep. The authors of the study believe this is because the

time change disturbs the body’s natural rhythms.

These conflicting claims have led many people to wonder whether the

extra hour of light in the evening is worth all the trouble. Opinions vary on this

matter. It is said that when one Native American heard about this practice, he

laughed and asked this question: “If you cut a piece off the top of a blanket, sew

it to the bottom, is the blanket longer?” No matter what time the clocks say, the

number of hours in the day remains the same.

What do 19th-century opera composer Gioachino Rossini, Canadian

hockey player Cam Ward, Olympic swimmer Cullen Jones, and actor Dennis

Farina have in common? Like about five million other people, they have a

birthday only every four years. They were born on February 29. That is the day

that is usually added to the end of February every four years-that is, every leap

year- to align the modern calendar with Earth’s revolution around the sun.

February 29 is leap day. Leap day is a little trick that the world uses to make up

for lost time. It is a trick with a long and complicated history.

The Quarter-Day Problem

Although we think of a year as 365 days, the 2 actual revolution of Earth

lasts a little bit longer than that. In fact, Earth revolves around the sun every

365.242 days. This gap between the calendar year and Earth’s revolution has

prompted cultures since ancient times to add extra days, or even months, in an

effort to align them.

based on a solar year, which consists of the 365 days it takes Earth to go around

the sun. In contrast, many ancient calendars were based on lunar months, which

are about 29.5 days. A year of twelve such months totals only about 354 days.

This is about II days short of the time it takes Earth to go around the sun. As a

result of this difference, annual events soon drifted out of alignment with the

seasons.

A harvest holiday might come just as farmers were planting; a winter festival

day might fall in the spring.

Such inaccuracy was unacceptable during the Roman Empire. The

Romans required a precise calendar for business and government. Rent on

property, interest on loans, and prison sentences all depended on the calendar.

They tried to correct the calendar in about 700 BCE by changing the number of

days in each month and adding two months- January and February- to their year.

These changes helped, but they did not solve the problem. In fact, a long-term

solution for the Romans had to wait for a famous love story.
Love Brings Reform to the Roman calendar

Reform came to Rome via the Egyptians, who were among the first to

establish the true length of the solar year. By around 300 BCE, Egypt had

adopted a leap-year system. More than three centuries later, the Egyptian ruler

Cleopatra fell in love with Julius Caesar. She introduced him to the concept of

the leap year, which he brought back to Rome. In 46 BCE, Caesar ordered one

445-day year to correct the decades of drift all at once. Then he instituted the

new Julian calendar (named after himself), which had 12 months and 365 days.

Every four years, one day was added to the end of the year, which, at that time,

was in February.

The new calendar was a tremendous step forward, but it was still not

accurate. By the sixteenth century, astronomers realized there was a significant

flaw. The solar year is precisely .242 days longer than a calendar year. That is

just short of a quarter of a day (4 x .242 = .968). As a result, adding an entire

extra day every four years is a slight overcorrection. In other words, leap day

adds a little bit too much time - 11 minutes too much - every year. Over time,
this resulted in an extra day every 128 years. So, by the late 16th century, the

Julian calendar had drifted by 10 days.

To resolve this problem, in 1582, Pope 7 Gregory XIII instituted the

Gregorian calendar. As in the Julian calendar, a leap year occurs every four

years, but there is one exception. It occurs in the first year of the century—years

ending in 00—only every four centuries. Thus, while the years 2000 and 2400

are leap years, 2100, 2200, and 2300 are not (see Figure 1). The Gregorian

calendar was gradually adopted by much of the world and remains in common

use. It finally resolved the problem of aligning the calendar with the revolution

of the sun.