Yep, it's that time of year again to start out the old mnemonic "Spring forward, Fall back". I usually hear nothing but complaints about losing an hour of sleep, but good grief, it happens on a Saturday night and the next day is Sunday. The only people who it seems like it would really inconvenience are the church goers...and I'd like to know what percentage of them sleep through church anyway. I'd think people who worked the graveyard shift would be happy, having to work only 7 hours.
When I worked on rigs, we usually got paid for the nine hours we were out there during this time change and generally when the fall change of advancing the clock ahead an hour, we got paid for eight, despite having only worked seven hours, but I did have a few companies who refused to do that, saying we got the extra hour in the spring, so it was only fair. The trouble with that was I sometimes hadn't been working for the company then and when that was the case - when I had to be out there for nine hours and only got paid for eight - I'd make a point- if I could- to do absolutely nothing for an hour. If I couldn't, then I'd do it some other night . Don't get me wrong, I was a good hand and conscientious about my job, but it was the principal of the thing.
Enough about my roughnecking days (or nights), here's some day trivia:
The total time between sunrise and sunset is the "day length". This can vary with latitude.
Day length at the equator is about 12 hours every day.
Day length at the poles ranges between 24 and 0 hours every six months.
Why aren’t there exactly 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness on the spring and fall equinoxes?
On the equinoxes, the very center of the Sun sets just 12 hours after it rose. But the day begins when the upper edge of the Sun reaches the horizon (which happens a bit before the center rises), and it doesn’t end until the entire Sun has set. Not only that, but the Sun is actually visible when it is below the horizon, as Earth’s atmosphere refracts the Sun’s rays and bends them in an arc over the horizon.
When I worked on rigs, we usually got paid for the nine hours we were out there during this time change and generally when the fall change of advancing the clock ahead an hour, we got paid for eight, despite having only worked seven hours, but I did have a few companies who refused to do that, saying we got the extra hour in the spring, so it was only fair. The trouble with that was I sometimes hadn't been working for the company then and when that was the case - when I had to be out there for nine hours and only got paid for eight - I'd make a point- if I could- to do absolutely nothing for an hour. If I couldn't, then I'd do it some other night . Don't get me wrong, I was a good hand and conscientious about my job, but it was the principal of the thing.
Enough about my roughnecking days (or nights), here's some day trivia:
The total time between sunrise and sunset is the "day length". This can vary with latitude.
Day length at the equator is about 12 hours every day.
Day length at the poles ranges between 24 and 0 hours every six months.
Why aren’t there exactly 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness on the spring and fall equinoxes?
On the equinoxes, the very center of the Sun sets just 12 hours after it rose. But the day begins when the upper edge of the Sun reaches the horizon (which happens a bit before the center rises), and it doesn’t end until the entire Sun has set. Not only that, but the Sun is actually visible when it is below the horizon, as Earth’s atmosphere refracts the Sun’s rays and bends them in an arc over the horizon.
