• Maggoty@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    You’re using a tilted and flattened map. Look at the US on Google Earth. It’s not level with latitude lines, and the northern states are expanded on any flat representation.

    This is most noticeable at the equator, where there is no large variation. (There’s about 8 minutes difference due to secondary things, not axial tilt.)

    • Cataphract@lemmy.ml
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      1 day ago

      … do you believe the person made the image for this comment? What evidence is shown in the image for you to believe that the tilt and shape of the earth wasn’t taken into consideration for the graphic, besides it being shown as a 2d image?

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Because the reasons for the varying lengths of day are well known It’s more an exercise in figuring out why the map has such slanting in it.

        • Cataphract@lemmy.ml
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          1 day ago

          You’re just like almost there, that graph isn’t about lengths of days. It’s an arbitrary representation of what someone would consider a “normal” time for the sun to set and rise. The gradient in colors is because of the shape of the earth, the blocky lines are probably the cut off counties/states that follow different timezones (would need to verify source for that though). I’ve gotta split but hopefully someone can explain it better in the mean time if you have more questions.

          • Sludgeyy@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            Thank you. You did a great job explaining it.

            The gradients change based on time zones. You’ll see how they line up.

            Walking over a time zone line changes time one hour, but the sunset time doesn’t magically change an hour.

            Like say you are standing between Georgia and Alabama. If you walk into Georgia the sun will set at around 5:30pm EST. If you walk into Alabama the sun will set at around 4:30pm CST.

            The sun is setting one hour earlier in Alabama but you are basically watching the exact same sunset.

            As you go further west into Alabama the time zone change “makes more sense” because the time zone being exactly between Alabama and Georgia doesn’t make sense other than them being separate states.

            • Cataphract@lemmy.ml
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              14 hours ago

              Geez. that timezone separation is more fucked than I realized lol. I’ve lived in different time zones but always near the center of it and I didn’t know there was such awful cut offs that zigzag through states like that. Sucks that user stayed hostile though, not sure if they just want to argue about everything timezone related or just too embarrassed to gracefully exit.

              • Sludgeyy@lemmy.world
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                7 hours ago

                They have to start and stop somewhere is the problem and you don’t want half a city or town using two different times. Imagine if the hardware store on one side of town closed at 8 EST and the mall on the other closed at 8 CST. Theoretically, they could be right next to each other even. For example, if you lived by the hardware store but worked at the mall, things would be a mess.

                So really not awful cut offs but more weird cut offs. Because making standard cut offs doesn’t make it any better. Kind of like, best they can be with current system.

                I find time zones and everything so interesting and that people don’t understand it at all. Some people will say “I hate daylight savings time” when they like the extra hour of light in the evening but hate changing their clocks. They like DST but hate changing the clocks and probably want to stay on DST always.

                There’s no best way to do it. It’s all preference.

                I compared Sioux Falls SD to Rapid City SD in another comment on this thread. If Rapid City was CST like Sioux Falls the sun would set 25 minutes later in Rapid City, but since it is MST the sun sets 35 minutes before.

                You also got to think some start work at 8 some start at 9. If you start at 9, you’re more likely in favor of DST.

                Yeah a lot of misinformation around DST. People don’t like being wrong and I guess the image didn’t fit what they wanted to be right. Oh well lol

    • Sludgeyy@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Sioux Falls SD is 43.5460°N

      Rapid City SD is 44.0805°N

      Sioux Falls Sunset is at 5:13pm CST

      Rapid City Sunset is at 4:38pm MST

      If both cities were in CST, Rapid City sun would set at 5:38pm CST

      Due to the latitude difference, the sunsets should be 25 minutes apart

      However, they are 35 minutes apart due to the time zone difference

      If you said “Sioux Falls is farther south than Rapid City” and tried to base sunset time on just that, you’d be wrong.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        And? We’re not abolishing timezones any time soon. So there’s always going to be that issue of the easternmost and westernmost towns in a time zone. That’s not a reason for anything.

        • Sludgeyy@lemmy.world
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          8 hours ago

          Like I said, “It’s not just north or south.”

          Time zones change the sunset time east and west as well.

          Abolishing time zones has nothing to do with “fixing” daylight savings.

          Even if we all switched to UTC and got rid of time zones . Everyone would have to decide when to go to bed, when to wake up, and when to work to fit it around the sun.

          5:13pm CST is 11:13pm UTC

          If Sioux Falls wanted to stay “standard time” for the sun. They would have to start work at 3pm UTC and get off work at 11pm UTC. (9am to 5pm)

          Yet they could decide that they wanted to get “daylight savings time” for the sun, they would start work at 2pm UTC and get off at 10pm UTC. They would get one extra hour of sun after work instead of before.

          • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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            6 hours ago

            Okay we’re not talking about the same thing here.

            The length of your day is not defined by your time zone. It is defined by your latitude, how far north of the equator you are. X degrees north gets Y hours of sunlight at N time of year.

            It’s that simple. So instead of creating a fucking nightmare for commerce and programming, we should be working the hours that make sense. Being on the western edge of a time zone means your work hours should be different than on the Eastern edge.

            If you shift the zone, you’re not going to get more sunlight, you’re going to get a later time to go home from your boss. The problem isn’t the time zone. It’s capitalism demanding you work the entire day away even though productivity has increased massively and we work far more than our ancestors from supposedly dreary times.

            That’s why shifting the time zone is, at most, going to get you the sun in your eyes as you drive home. It’s not going to give you any more hours of sunlight. Those don’t magically appear. And it wastes energy as people try to heat the coldest part of the day instead of staying under their blankets. Savings Time literally is the worst option except in the one regard of trying to preserve afternoon light for people rich enough to enjoy it.