Why do we change the clocks at the end of March?

[8ace]

Does the whole world join in? Someone mentioned the USA and i believe Europe does as well, but do all the countries participate in this event?

Mostly mid-latitude countries for obvious reasons.

 

[The Andy Naylor Fan Club]

Mostly mid-latitude countries for obvious reasons.

Cheers

 

[beorhthelm]

If the Scots vote Yes for independence in their referendum and break away from the rest of the UK there will be a strong argument for England and Wales to push for double summertime (UCT/GMT +2) to be adopted.

only by daft people.

the clocks go forward in the summer so that we do not waste hours of decent sunlight in the morning. for some daft reason we settled on office hours starting at 9am, which means from May to August you have 4-5 hours of decent daylight before most are at work, 2-3 of which are usually spent in bed. meanwhile we get home to a short evening. it really doesnt affect the agricultural industry much as they work to the daylight available anyway, they really dont care much until some daft reporter does their annual interview to say how bad it would be for them if the clocks didnt go back (to the correct time note) in the autumn.

in the modern world, there has been stong evidence that the advance of clock saves considerable £ in lighting cost. the US recently shifted their switch-over date by a couple of weeks, reckoned to save x billions. safety is often cited as reason, but its a zero sum game, what you lose in daylight in one season you gain in another.

 

[Spider]

I would imagine that plenty of people who rant about how farcical it is when we change the clocks would soon miss the extra hour of light we get in the evening. I know I enjoy long summer evenings, when you can still sit in a light garden until 8 or 9pm. I assume those who don't start their barbeque and have a couple of beers before they go to work to make use of the extra hour's light in the morning.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

only by daft people.

That explains it all , the coalition were seriously considering it in February 2011.

 

[Everest]

If the clocks didn't go forward at the end of March, we'd lose an hour a year.

After 24 years, we've lost a whole day.
That lost day could be the day we would have won the Champions League. Would you want to chance it?

 

[goldstone]

I would imagine that plenty of people who rant about how farcical it is when we change the clocks would soon miss the extra hour of light we get in the evening. I know I enjoy long summer evenings, when you can still sit in a light garden until 8 or 9pm. I assume those who don't start their barbeque and have a couple of beers before they go to work to make use of the extra hour's light in the morning.

Keep the clocks an hour ahead of GMT all year, then none of this stupid clock change rubbish.

No one has yet explained to me why the clock change dates are not each set an equal period of time away from the shortest day.

 

[Notters]

Until about 15 (?) Years ago they did change the clocks at the beginning of march but they changed it to the end to match with the rest of Europe. Bit surprised it's taken this long for anyone to tell you that.

 

[Notters]

There's a bit more detail here [MENTION=144]goldstone[/MENTION]: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Summer_Time

It got coordinated across Europe in 1996; before that we had it right.

 

[HovaGirl]

Keep the clocks an hour ahead of GMT all year, then none of this stupid clock change rubbish.

They experimented with not changing the clocks in the winter (for about 3 years?) in the 1960s. They found too many children were going to school in the dark in the mornings. I actually remember playing hockey in the dark at a first lesson on a winter's day.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

They experimented with not changing the clocks in the winter (for about 3 years?) in the 1960s. They found too many children were going to school in the dark in the mornings. I actually remember playing hockey in the dark at a first lesson on a winter's day.

Yeah, my parents lived in Glasgow at this time. They basically said it was pitch-black when everyone was going to work and school