Daylight Savings? What's my interest rate?

So the Indiana Legislature has voted to pass Daylight Savings Time into law. After years of holding out, Indiana will join the other 48 states in changing their clocks twice a year.

First off, let me explain how I understand DST works, and if I'm mistaken, someone please comment and correct me. Note that these calculations assume that Indiana joins Eastern time (like Michigan above us). I will need two variables, let's call them RT (real time - aka unadjusted for DST aka the time that makes sense to Indianans) and DST. In the Spring, we add one hour to RT to get DST (RT + 1 = DST), and DST is the time displayed. This means that when the clock says 8:00PM, it is really 8:00PM - 1 = 7:00PM. Therefore, the sun is still up later. Also, in the morning, when the clock reads 6:00AM, the real time is 6:00AM - 1 = 5:00AM, and so the sun is a 5AM sun, not a 6AM sun. The bottom line is that during the Summer, the sun will rise and set one hour later than RT.

I have heard DST proponents claim that DST results in more daylight. I will now mathematically disprove this claim. First, let us take a typical day where the time of sunlight is a constant C. The way we compute C is to subtract sunset from sunrise. Algebraically, C = Sunset - Sunrise. Now we can display sunset and sunrise in either RT or DST. I'll do both cases.

Case 1: RT
C = RT(sunset) - RT(sunrise)

Case 2: DST
C = DST(sunset) - DST(sunrise)
C = (RT + 1)(sunset) - (RT+ 1)(sunrise)
C = RT(sunset) + 1 - RT(sunrise) - 1
C = RT(sunset) - RT(sunrise) + 1 - 1
C = RT(sunset) - RT(sunrise)

Notes: Please excuse my lack of ability to appropriately write subscripts. Treat (sunset) and (sunrise) as subscripts, please. Also, in case 2, the 1s do not have subscripts because one hour at sunrise is assumed to be the same as one hour at sunset.

Behold, the cases yield the same amount of daylight. Therefore it is mathematically impossible that DST gives you more sunlight.

But I can hear the DSTers saying now "But you have more time in the evening with sunlight." Very well, I agree to that. I have already said that the sun rises and sets one hour later. But now I have a question for the DSTers - if more sun in the evening was the goal, then why stop at just one hour? Wouldn't it make more sense to set sunrise at RT noon so that by the time most people were getting off work, it would hit the 11:00AM (RT) sun? That would provide a lot of sun in the evening, much more so than just one little hour.

I've also heard that DST is results in an economic benefit. This I cannot understand. Perhaps there is some small psychological correlation between consumption and sunlight, but it has yet to be included in any of the macroeconomic models that I have studied. Even if there was a correlation, I would say it is due to confounding factors (like maybe that more people sleep at night so there's less consumption then). I've also heard that DST saves energy. This cannot be the case because any energy you would save from air conditioning (in the morning) or lighting (in the evening) would be offset by opposite air conditioning/lighting in the evening/morning (respectively). I also have yet to see proof of either increased consumption or energy savings in any statistical format. Surely there are similar enough towns between Indiana and Ohio, two states very geographically close, that a statistical analysis of energy use and consumption could be formed for testing of these claims. The lack of proof concerns me.

Then there is the argument that Indiana's oddball time zone takes away from business here. I cannot see the point in that either. Time zone changes are not hard to adjust to - some industries do it all the time. Businesses in tropical nations do not observe DST (for scientific reasons, it is of no benefit for them to do so) yet they do not claim a lack of business because US companies change their local time once or twice a year. How much business is lost on the single frustration of "I don't know what time it is in Indiana?" Better yet, why would Indiana companies want to do business with a firm that is either too lazy or ignorant to use Google for 10 seconds to find out what time it is in Indiana? This I do not understand. If you do, please explain it to me.

In short, I fail to see what daylight is saved with DST. And where is this missing (because savings delays consumption) daylight stored? What interest rate am I getting on my sunlight? Can I redeem it during my retirement years for an extra-early game of golf or shuffleboard some day? I feel that time is one of those elements which is not supposed to be changed, but rather should progress in a straightforward, consistent manner in order to facilitate daily life. But then again, I am just a silly Indiana boy.

Hello World

Welcome friends. You are here because you're curious, nosy, compusively check profiles on various places, or all of the above. This is my blog and I'm going to give this a whirl. No promises on how often the updates will come, but if I have loyal fans, I promise they will in fact come.

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