why did we turn clocks ahead 3 weeks early?

Answer 1

Obviously DST does not change the length of the day, but the longer days nearer the summer solstice offer more opportunity to shift apparent daylight from morning to evening so that early morning daylight is not wasted. Energy conservation has often been used to justify DST. Artificially delaying sunrise and sunset tends to increase electricity usage in the morning and reduce it in the evening. Savings occur if the evening reduction outweighs the morning increase.

The period of daylight and night varies according to the seasons and the latitude. For example at 40°N latitude there are:
+ 9.21 hours of light on Jan 1
+ 11.02 hours of light on Mar 1
+ 14.63 hours of light on June 1
+ 12.92 hours of light on Sept 1.
http://www.orchidculture.com/COD/daylength.html#40N
If you know your latitude and longitude, you can calculate the time of sunrise and sunset with this calculator:
http://www.jgiesen.de/astro/solarday.htm

The Energy Policy Act of 2005, Pub. L. no. 109-58, 119 Stat 594 (2005) took effect this March. Starting in 2007, daylight time began in the United States on the second Sunday in March and will end on the first Sunday in November. On the second Sunday, March 11, 2007, clocks were set ahead one hour at 2:00 a.m. local standard time, which became 3:00 a.m. local daylight time. On the first Sunday in November, clocks will be set back one hour at 2:00 a.m. local daylight time, which will become 1:00 a.m. local standard time.

Not all places in the U.S. observe daylight time. In particular, Hawaii and most of Arizona do not use it.

Remember to change the batteries in your smoke detector when you change your clocks....Many fire departments encourage people to change the batteries in their smoke detectors when they change their clocks because Daylight Saving Time provides a convenient reminder. "A working smoke detector more than doubles a person's chances of surviving a home fire," says William McNabb of the Troy Fire Department in Michigan. More than 90 percent of homes in the United States have smoke detectors, but one-third are estimated to have dead or missing batteries

Answer 2

The government "thinks" that more daylight will result in an energy savings. Actually, house lighting is only a small portion of an electric bill. Not only did they move up DST, they added one more week at the end, so DST will end the first weekend in November.

Answer 3

Cause your prez is a numbskull. It has cost a lot of money in some hospitals where some equipment is dependant on the correct time for meds & even tracking ekg's for time of death. Even though I don't think he was bright enough to realize there was dough to be made here.

Wait till fall when you have to change it back 2x's again. He really loves his fellow Americans.

Answer 4

Check out MY active question... I'm trying to figure out why the atomic clocks and computer clocks and DVR clocks still don't have the correct time.. as if it no one gave anyone a heads-up that it was going to happen. I'm having to manually change my ATOMIC clocks.
Also, check the answers to my question. as interesting as the ones here. (though the date of time change is printed on my calendar, so everyone knew.)

Answer 5

It was passed in the government of the US o try and save energy more sunlight less need for house lights street lights etc. It is also being followed in Canada but, most of Europe is still using the old time change date.
We also are changing back later in the fall November 4 weekend. instead of the weekend in October.

Answer 6

On orders from the President himself...he forced Congress to publicly express unaminous support for THAT stupid idea two years ago, but really Congressmembers from BOTH chambers privately want to abolish DST altogether because they want to investigate the "Big Oil" idiots for gouging us w/ high pump prices...

Time to abolish DST NOW!!!...

Answer 7

a million. make certain BIOS clock is real. 2. bypass to Microsoft information base article (KB931836) that ameliorations the sunlight hours savings time to the most superb time considering that we had an earlier sunlight hours savings time this year.

Answer 8

not turning on the lights so much the government says we are going to save so much in oil usage.

Answer 9

cause the us was doing it so to stay in the same time zone
we did too