Time Change 2012: Daylight Savings Ends November 4

Daylight savings time will end on November 4, 2012 at 2 am and the news that the clocks will be falling back has created confusion over exactly when.

Despite the fact that daylight savings time has been in place since 1918 (though it was first repealed in 1919), reports The Examiner. It has been locally observed since 1945 before it became the Uniform Time Act revision in 1972.

The time change in 2012 began on March 11 and will end on Sunday morning. It is not observed in Hawaii or most of Arizona (the Navajo Nation observes it), but it is observed in the other 48 states.

The US Department of Transportation surveyed Americans and discovered that they generally like daylight savings time, because it allows for long evenings with daylight. The later light allows people to enjoy more activities later on in the day.

MaBoot notes that the best way to determine how to change your clocks is the saying “spring ahead, fall back,” meaning that when daylight savings time ends November 4, we will turn our clocks back one hour, which for some is a celebration of one more hour of sleep.

But not everything about the end of time change 2012 is good, because fall comes with short days and commutes in darkness, as well as the end of long afternoons and evenings. Daylight will continue to get shorter and shorter as November goes on.

TimeandDate.com notes that Ben Franklin was the first to theorize the idea of time changes. They write:

“Benjamin Franklin first suggested Daylight Saving Time in 1784, but modern DST was not proposed until 1895 when an entomologist from New Zealand, George Vernon Hudson, presented a proposal for a two-hour daylight saving shift to the Wellington Philosophical Society.”

While there have been theories that said the time change was mean to benefit farmers, who would be given more daylight time to harvest their crops. Another possible reason is to save energy, as with the 20005 Energy Act.

Because of technology like computers and cellphones, not as many people have to make sure that they change their clocks when daylight savings time ends, because these forms of technology will automatically adjust.

Are you ready to gain an extra hour (of sleep or staying up late) when daylight saving s time ends on November 4?