Re: Okay, I'm now confused!
Hceux said:
Huh? Do I have this right? So in the summer, it's light out til 10pm or later in the Eastern Time zone, but it's not true in the Central Time zone (or whatever it's called where Chicago is). Does light "fall" earlier or later in Chicago than in the Eastern Time Zone?
Each town used to have "local" time and noon was when the sun was directly overhead. Then the railroads got built, folks began belly-aching about how to figure out when the trains would be there and we created standard time zones. So, each time zone is roughly 15 degrees wide. Which means that folks on the far edges of a time zone have the same 'time' but the sun is in a different place -- by a whole "hour".
The thing I have not heard mentioned in this thread is the effect of distance from the equator. That is one of the things which makes for short winter days and long summer days. The further north you go, the more extreme the difference is until you get to the arctic circle, at which point your 'days' and 'nights' last for months at a time.
If I recall right, part of Indiana's issue is that it has 3 time zones and that part of the state practices daylight saving time and part doesn't. Or something wacky like that. Daylight saving time is a whole 'nother ball of wax and not all states use it -- it was even whackier before federal law mandated that if a state used it, they had to change their clocks on a specific day of the year.
Did I ever mention I do astrology? This crap makes it a nightmare to figure out an accurate time of birth when casting a chart -- which is why I know so much about this nonsense: Was it or wasn't it "war time" or "daylight saving time" when you were born? It is enough to put an astrologer into therapy.
