A History and Account of Daylight Savings

Lisa Wade, PhD on March 10, 2014

In just 6 1/2 minutes, CGP Gray offers a humorous and info-packed account of Daylight Savings. He tackles the historical rationale, the role of the equator, the contemporary debate, and the wildly wacky situations it causes today, including health problems and loss of productivity. It’s all even wackier than you probably already imagine. Enjoy:

Also from CGP Gray:

Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

Comments 16

Aho — March 10, 2012

Supposedly, the idea was first suggested by Ben Franklin in 1784...

Fsfsa — March 10, 2012

nitpicking:

Brazil's daylight saving time is wrong

Brodzie — March 11, 2012

actually the southern states in Australia have daylight savings in summer

kdmw — March 11, 2012

As a Saskatchewanian currently attending school in Ontario, I hate daylight saving time, and I can't wait to move back and never have to deal with it again.

Kelly H — March 12, 2012

I like how he says "Most of Oz does DST", and then excludes nearly two-thirds of our land area. Most Aussies would be true, on account of the DST-using south-eastern states being the most populous.

Kelly H — March 12, 2012

I like how he says "Most of Oz does DST", and then excludes nearly two-thirds of our land area. Most Aussies would be true, on account of the DST-using south-eastern states being the most populous.

Anonymous — March 12, 2012

I love CGP Gray's videos. He does a lot of research and generally makes few mistakes. I'm not sure about all the particulars of this video, but in the past, if there was a discrepancy and/or misunderstanding in one of his videos, he'll address it. (Example: Daddy long legs in his "8 Animal Misconception" video got a separate video explaining what he meant, but also how "daddy long legs" refers to more than one thing depending on where you are.) So if there is an error, contact him or check the comments to see if it was addressed already.

Ohto — March 22, 2012

I would like to add that when you go far enough from the Equator, like Finland, where the length of daytime is about 20 hours in June and July, DST is actually even less useful. 'Cause it really doesn't matter that much whether the sun rises at 2 or 3 AM or whether it sets at 10 or 11 PM. I'd much rather have DST in the winter: I hate walking home from school at 4 PM when it's already pitch-dark.

Martino — March 10, 2014

Imagine trying to program all of that:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5wpm-gesOY

Also check out this reddit where programmers are bitching about even more complicated timezones issues:
http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1u0rpi/the_problem_with_time_timezones_computerphile/

RexSchrader — March 10, 2014

The URL to his blog is no longer correct. The new URL is:
http://www.cgpgrey.com/

Love his videos and his podcast is fun too!

L10 — March 11, 2014

Another nitpick: cute video about DST, but slight sexism (breast shot re. Germany) and racism ("average boring person" shown as white male). Also, should we pick on the "s" put at the end of "Saving" in the blog itself? :)

[links] Link salad feels a bit better during the lull between assault waves | jlake.com — March 11, 2014

[…] A History and Account of Daylight Savings […]

Bill R — March 11, 2014

Is any serious discussion about changing this taking place?